Was over at The High Road and found this post on the finding of the bodies, and the killing of the bear. Interesting reading.
One thing that catches me is the fact that the bear, which almost got the pilot who reported the incident and went after the rangers, did not put on any threat display or warnings; he was moving quietly and fast. He was hunting, not showing. As someone said, an animal that's putting on a show doesn't want to fight; one that's not intends to kill. And with the rangers, four men on alert for trouble, the damn thing got to within 20 feet before one happened to spot him; three guesses what would have happened if that guy hadn't looked back?
Guy I used to work with spent time in Alaska at an Air Force base out in the boonies, I can't remember the base name. He told me there were two big rules about going outside the fence: first, in winter it was a court martial offense to go outside the fence alone, since if you got hurt you'd probably be dead before anyone found you and second, in every group that went out at least one man would be armed. The bears never forgot they're the apex predator up there. While he was there, two guys went camping and never came back. Turned out they'd pitched camp near a bear trail without realizing it. They found the camp torn up, but never found either of the men. Never found the bear/s, either.
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