During the many years living in Alberta’s wilderness outside of the big cities of Calgary and Edmonton, along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains NW of Calgary, I have encountered situations which to most city dwellers may seem frightening.
During the years I worked on my 80-acre ranch with my horses, building barns and rail fences. Adjacent to my acreage was crown land, miles of it, leased out as grazing land to the big ranchers for their cows. Somewhere in the midst of all that wilderness – grass and many trees – was that saw mill. I often went to the saw mill to get rough cut lumber, using my 3/4 ton 4-wheel drive Dodge truck. There were no roads, only rough rutted trails. One day driving in there, a smaller truck came out towards me, two men sitting in it, cheesy-white in their faces, obviously scared of something they encountered in the vicinity of that saw mill. Indeed – when I came closer I saw the yellow warning tapes from Alberta Wildlife around a larger area (grizzly bear), right close to the saw mill. I drove on to see the saw mill guy. He was not around. Obviously because of the grizzly bear warning. Later I read up on this in one of the local papers. A grizzly had taken down a cow. Scary ? well, not really. Just always be careful and do not aggravate such large wild animals without first announcing your presence. In that case, though, being a big bear feeding, an even more careful approach is needed.
[More stories, next time around.]

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