The Kodiak (coastal brown) bear
I have no idea if this big guy (the bear) is living or stuffed. The man standing behind him looks overly comfortable for it to be a living, breathing, hungry, angry 12-foot Kodiak.
Now, these claws to the right are from the
Black bear (smallest on left),
Polar bear,
Grizzly bear, and
Coastal Brown bear (aka
Kodiak bear). You get the picture of what size of
paw must wield these weapons.
Here is a shot taken of a Kodiak paw print... with a human foot inside. These are
VERY LARGE bears.
Imagine going hunting for one of these bears with nothing but bow-and-arrow! Astounding.
Excerpt from Trident's Flame
End of Chapter 13...
when the small group is hiking along trails in the hills behind the town of Kodiak:
Fifteen minutes later, a fog rolled
down the mountain from behind them. It appeared slowly at first. Then the wind
picked up, and a thick wall of cloud followed them down the hill, enveloping
them completely. Caroline became frightened at first, slowing down, and walking
over to Jake. “What’s happening?” she asked, her eyes nervously searching the
woods around them. “I feel like I’m in a Stephen King movie.”
“It’s just fog, Caroline. Nothing
to worry about,” Jake assured her. “If you look down, you’ll notice that the
trail is still easy to see.” As he gestured to the ground in front of them, he
noticed a deep impression to the right of the trail. Jake stopped abruptly. He
called sharply to Jonathon, “Over here!”
Charlie bent down to look as Jonathon
and Brigid approached. Jake pulled the necklace of claws out of his pocket. They
all watched as Jake, kneeling, felt the edges of the depression in the dirt,
about twelve inches across. He tried his best to apply what tracking skills he had
learned from Master Chief Matthews.
“Is that what I think it is?”
Jonathon asked. His voice was tight, as if his jaw were partially clenched. Brigid
was quiet.
Chapter 14: Bear Claws
MOUNTAIN
WILDERNESS SOUTH OF KODIAK,
ALASKA
Charlie was the first to speak,
“That’s a bear print, isn’t it?” Jake felt the soil around the print, noticing
how compact it was.
“I believe it is,” Jake said. “And
from what I can make of it, if I learned anything from Scouts and Master Chief,
it’s very fresh. Was probably made since we passed by here. It’s so near the
trail, I think I would have noticed it on the way up.”
Brigid and Caroline both inhaled at
the same time. Caroline put her hand over her mouth.
Jake stood. “Let’s look around this
immediate area. Spread out, just a couple feet from one another, and see if you
can spot any other tracks. I’m looking for any sign of smaller versions of
these prints.” They all did as he suggested. Jonathon reported another large
print, as did Charlie. But no one spotted any small prints.
“Okay,” Jake said at last. “The
good news is that it doesn’t appear to have a cub travelling with it, so we’re
not likely to meet a mother protecting her babies. That’s about the worst
situation you can encounter with a bear. Mother bears have a way of attacking
any threat they see. One of those attack-first-ask-questions-later approaches.”
“And the bad news?” asked Brigid,
sounding genuinely scared now.
“Well, I don’t know how Kodiak
bears cope with weather like this,” Jake said, “but animals are much more
tuned-in to their environments than we are. If it sensed this weather coming
in, it may have tried to head down the mountain. The tracks do lead that direction.
I can’t be certain about that. The bad news is this bear has been here very
recently, and it’s a big, big animal. Maybe four, five hundred pounds.”
“What should we do?” Charlie asked.
“Continue back on this trail?”
“Yes. But there are some things we should plan on, just in
case,” Jake said, turning to face all of them. “If we meet this guy, and
hopefully we won’t—since there is a lot of acreage out here to separate us—one thing
we should absolutely not do is run. We
stay close together. Even if it charges, we stick together. It’s the idea of
power in numbers. Another thing—plan on standing up and raising your arms in
the air. It’s a way to make yourself look larger to the bear.”
He took Charlie’s hand, who took
Caroline’s hand. “Jonathon,’ Jake added, “perhaps you could bring up the back. We’ll
keep the women in between us, okay?” Jonathon nodded, taking Brigid’s hand, and
they started off.
They walked very quietly, hoping to not make enough noise to
give away their presence. They passed through the fern covered area, still as
quiet as it was before. They could hear their breathing, and small puffs of
condensation were visible as they exhaled. Jake could tell the temperature was
dropping, and fast. Another twenty minutes passed, and they faced the twin log
bridge that proved so daunting earlier. Caroline whimpered quietly and sat down
next to a nearby tree.
His final assignment was as the
Assistant Professor of Military Science at The Citadel in Charleston,
SC. He holds a Master's of Science in Defense Analysis from the Naval
Postgraduate School, with a concentration in Irregular Warfare. When
not writing, he serves as a security consultant on asymmetric threats
for various agencies. He lives in Charleston, SC with his wife and two
daughters.
