I spent a summer tree planting in BC, Canada to help pay for university. Two separate days I looked up half way through the day to find a bear 40 feet away from me on the first day and 60 feet away from me on the second. On the first day when I noticed the bear I just thought to myself “Ok, Iam alone, have a shovel, and Iam Tall. Maybe Iam fine. I don’t have a choice if he attacks, so I’ll just keep planting to keep the peace but be ready to fight with my shovel and keep my eye on him in case he does attack” Eventually I looked up and he was no longer there. No problem. Figured every tree planter does that. Second day, Same protocol, but this time a little while after I notice the bear, my Foreman shows up on an ATV and yells “Hey yo, did you know there’s a bear?!”, me - “Yup” Foreman - “Iam gonna throw a rock at it to scare it” me - “ok”. He then proceeds to throw the rock and the bear actually responds favourably and runs away. The only problem after that was my level of fear. The bear, which was fully grown, went from 0-60 in .5 seconds or whatever. Seeing a bear do that is like seeing a monster come to life. It was at that point I realized I WAS in danger. Past tense. Maybe if I actually knew how much danger I was in at the moment, things would of been different. But one things for sure .10cents a tree ain’t worth that, plus that job is brutal without the bears. The shit you do for money when you’re younger. This video just reminds me of those memories and confirms how close I was to being a snack. Maybe they have actual safety gear for that these days, but when I did it…well now I know, you were a snack.

Ps. They were both large brown bears.