Hearing about bears in Vermont is a big issue. Many people have never heard about bears before, especially if they live in a different state. They don’t know how bears act and that they aren’t as elusive as people think, even though they appear to be. These stories will describe how these bears move and how amazing people have interacted with them.
Josh Carbo, a senior at U-32, has a great story to share:
It was Sunday, first weekend of regular season. In the morning we saw a big buck in the field, but it was in a safety zone, so we couldn’t shoot it. We tracked it and when we were following it, we came up over a knoll and noticed a large black mass chasing us. I told my dad and he shot it in a matter of seconds. We walked over and saw that it was a small male cub. We brought it back and went out hunting again for a deer, but we never saw anything. At the end of the day we went to Maplefields in Plainfield and weighed the bear. It came out to be only 64 pounds. I think the bear started chasing us because the deer might have been nicked by a previous hunter and was bleeding. The bear could have also been following its trail and when it saw us, it thought we could have been a threat and wanted to attack us.
Evan Browning, a junior at U-32, encountered a bear in the woods with his dad:
We were in our woods, clearing our woods. We had our dog with us also. At first we saw the mother bear, staring at us. Then we saw the cub sitting in a little pool that we have out back in our woods. My dog got really excited, like all dogs do, and took off after the cub. We ran after my dog, and pulled her back. The mother bear began to chase us. We made it to our sugar shack on the edge of the woods. Then the mother bear gave up on the chase and went back to her cub.
Carlo de Prato, a resident of Orange has an odd story as well:
It was 11:00 at night and I just got up to go to work in Montpelier. I was ready to go and the truck was running for a while to warm up. As I was walking out the door towards my truck, I noticed a large black mass on the side of my truck. I was still very tired and trying to wake up and noticed it started to move towards me! I knew right away it was a bear and ran back onto the porch, unlocked the front door as fast as I could and went inside. I watched outside my window to see where it went. He went up to the birdfeeders, ate some seeds, did his business, and went back into the woods. After getting into my truck and getting to work I could still feel my heart beating.
Nathan Lafont, a former U-32 Student from Orange says:
I was just sitting there, deer hunting, and it was probably the last 15 minutes of light. Then I hear the crunch and got all excited because it was too heavy to be a squirrel. Then I saw a circular black blob come out. Then I realized it was a bear. A small one, but still exciting because I had never seen one in the woods before. I’d see them from the roads and fields. So I put my hand on my handgun with only 8 rounds! Just in case… I then pulled up on him with the rifle to get a closer look, I knew he was out of season. When I pulled up he was probably 15-25 yards away. My sling made a noise when I aimed it and he heard it, looked at me, then mosied on off to my right. To me, it seems like he didn’t even care I was there.
Hayden Pierce, a seventh grader at U-32, encountered a bear with his dad:
It was the first morning of youth season, when we heard some rustlings in the leaves. About thirty feet in front of us, two fawns. My blood started pumping. I knew they were too small to shoot, they probably weighed about eighty pounds. As they passed the gully, I continued to have a shaky feeling. Later that morning, my brother shot a four pointer, so our hunting ended for a little bit. We were able to sneak back out into our spot. Suddenly there was a loud crashing noise out in the trees. The next day, last day of youth season, began with a slow start. With a few hours left, I had only seen a partridge. I unpacked a fudge round, and ate it. Shortly after, I heard a startling crash in the trees. I looked to my left, and it startled me even more when I noticed it was a black bear looking into my eyes, about twenty feet away. My dad asks ‘ what was that?’ I replied ‘a bear.’ ‘A what?’ he asked again. I then replied with ‘ A bear, can I shoot it?’ The bear charges us, and is closing in. ‘Shoot it!’ dad said. ‘I can shoot it?’ ‘Shoot it’ he said again.I pulled up my rifle, and looked through the scope. Suddenly all I saw was black . I aimed and pulled the trigger, and felt the kick of my gun. The bear instantly spun in three circles, took five more steps, spun again. He then headed for the bank,crashing into everything. The bear had dropped and died, with a clean shot. It wasn’t until I walked up to the bear it hit me, I did it, I shot a bear.. I had realized that if I didn’t pass up on the deer, I wouldn’t have shot a bear. I always said I wouldn’t shoot a deer under one hundred pounds, my bear weighed one hundred and one pounds.
