This live bear trap consisted of a 50 gallon drum laid on its side. One side of the drum was open with a makeshift trapdoor set up over it. Con would bait the trap with some rotting salmon by putting the fish at the far end of the barrel. As the bear went in for the fish it would trigger the trap door and be locked in till the crew returned.
The crew went home to their regular houses over the weekend and when they came back it wasn’t till after work on Monday. There was a bear in the trap. Con and Hitch could tell that the bear had been in the trap for a long time; probably since right after they had left camp on Friday. The reason they could tell this is because the bear was feisty mad. There were rusted holes here and there in the sides of the barrel and when members of the camp would venture near the paws and mouth of the bear would dart viciously out from those holes frightening the logger close to the trap and amusing the onlookers.
The loggers got to talking over the campfire that night about what to do with the bear. They couldn’t just let it go right where they were at because it would be bothering poor Hitch in his tent again and this time it would likely be hungry enough to do more than just bother him. Then Con, the boss, came up with an idea that they would load the bear up into the back of his truck and take it up to the job in the morning. Con decided that he would give his hard working crew a break and a bit of recreation. Con had always been a little curious to see if he could whip a bear with his bare hands and now him and anyone else who wanted the opportunity could give “bear wrestling” a try.
Con’s curiosity, as to whether he could whip a bear or not, stemmed from the fact that Con ‘had’ whipped a bear a few weeks prior to this happening. Con never claimed he whipped the bear but when you hear the story you’ll be like his crew and believe it to be true. Con is a pretty good sized logger, and when one says logger, Con is a logger. He’s been logging since he was 8 years old and so natural at moving around in the woods that a person might think he is half lynx. So, though Con is of no supernatural stature, there is an aura about the man that warns those in his vicinity of the possibility of savage consequences should he be crossed.
This same Con was out, toward the end of a logging day, taking care of the white flag business on the edge of a logging unit. Upon finishing his said business Con meandered out into the uncut timber at the edge of the unit and started walking through, back up to where the yarder sat. Con is a hunter and a real watchful type so it wasn’t long before he looked over and noticed a bear, about 150lbs, walking parallel to him about 75 ft away. Con stopped and then the bear stopped and they looked at one another. The bear was foaming white foam out of its mouth and breathing heavy. Con was curious to what might be wrong with the bear and it looked like he would get a closer look because the bear was suddenly charging right for him. When the bear was about 5 ft away it leapt into the air and as Con said, “Seemed like it wanted to give me a hug like I was its old friend or something.” Con stepped sideways and decked the bear in the side of the head as hard as he could. The bear landed a few feet behind Con and stood there, looked at him a bit, shook his head, and Con said it was like the bear said, “What did you do that for?” Then the bear walked away and Con continued up the mountain. So it could have been that very incident that decided Con to take the bear up to his crew and let anyone wrestle the creature if they wanted to. Who knows?
The loggers of the camp loaded the bear up into Con’s truck Tuesday morning; all were very excited. When they reached the job Con backed his truck into the log landing by the big yarder and instructed his crew to take the occupied bear trap out of the back of his truck and put it into the middle of the log landing. The crew was all present; even Randy, the timber faller, was there… well he was kind of there. Randy might have had some bad experiences with bears because, though he was there, as soon as he saw the bear he climbed up on the yarder. Randy kept climbing on the yarder for awhile and then yelled down at Con, “Con! Hey Con! You think I am far enough away yet?” Everyone laughed at the sissy Randy and the rest of them made a horseshoe around the opening of the trap.
Big Dave, a 20 year high-lead logging veteran with red hair and a short temper, stood closest to the trap opening with a big stick in his hands. Well Dave was closest besides Hitch and Con. Con actually stood on top of the trap holding a rope. The rope had a slip loop tied into the end and was dangling over the opening of the trap in order to lasso the bear when it came out. As a matter of fact, Hitch was the closest to the trap and he would be in charge of opening the trap door to let the bear loose.
This is not recommended behavior as many of you have guessed already. Intentions of harming the bear or upsetting the cycles of nature were really not considered seriously. Loggers just like an adrenalin rush now and then. Some people have to have extremes before they even start to feel anything emotionally.
The hatch slid up, the bear bit Hitch in the knee, he screamed, Con dropped the rope, Dave dropped the stick, and they all ran off like rabbits. The bear ran too with the rope attached around its belly. Con had managed to lasso the bear but then decided he didn’t want to hold on anymore. Moral of the story: don’t mess with nature because nature is free. And the bear was free and the loggers went back to work except for Hitch who had to get a bite looked at.
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