Bubba Big Munch

So, after leaving the Kent Peninsula, Marilynn and I moved to our next site at the Naujaat Hills. We decided to employ new anti-bear tactics, including anchoring the boat offshore (as previously mentioned) and taking a bear monitor along with us. The Naujaat Hills were beautiful, the charr fishing was fabulous, and we were in high spirits. On the last day we said to each other, "we probably don't need a bear monitor, we'll be on the water most of the day and we haven't seen any bears." We did take our shotgun as per usual, though.

Well, approximately 3 hours into the day, Marilynn and I were electrofishing in the rapids that cascade down from the lake.

Marilynn: "Heidi, what's that?"

Heidi: "THAT'S a bear, eating our gear. Again."

Marilynn: "What should we do?"

Heidi: "First, I think we should remove all things from our bodies that are trippy, such as electrofishers."

Marilynn: "Good plan."

So, the usual routine. Fired off bear bangers. No response from bear. Sounded air horn. No response from bear. Shot off 8 shotgun shells in direction of bear. No response from bear. Bear is between us and the boat, and is ripping apart my brand new $100 seal bag.

Heidi: "YOU BUGGER. UNHAND MY SEAL BAG."

Marilynn: "Heidi, perhaps we should be happy he is not eating the boat. "

Heidi: "Indeed. Perhaps we should also contact camp."

At this point, we decided to move to a point where we had a better view of the bear and, since he was not responding to bear deterrants, wait until he got bored. He eventually did, and we took the opportunity to move to the zodiac. Since the radio and satellite gods were not with us on this fine day, we then removed our gill nets and followed the bear up the shore with the boat to get some pictures while we waited for our helicopter pickup time.

Marilynn: "Heidi, that is a rather large bear. Do you think there is anything left of our seal bags?"

Heidi: "Very unlikely. He probably ate my cliff bar, too, dammit!"

Marilynn: "Heidi, I believe we have lost another cooler."

The bear was then named Bubba Big Munch, because it was big and munched everything. We lost our best field bags, a cooler, and my second bottle of sunscreen. Sigh.

We are now known as the "bear girls."