I am CuTRis

A friend asked to see nature photos. I chose this one from Google Earth. It was where I camped some three plus decades ago, with my late friend, John. I'm sorry you can't see the water and the spruce and the hemlock growing up toward the snow capped mountain peaks. But I see it. I can see the seal, the eagles and the brief summer darkness and the rain. I still feel the uneasy exhilaration of watching brown bears looking across the sand and sedge at me. I can still feel the suction of the bog pulling my leg down, a few minutes after the float plane left. I still know the weight of my backpack as I slipped it off and pulled my leg free. I can feel the roughness of the starfish we tossed back into the water after low tide stranded them. I still feel the rocks and my body falling and the Devils Club ripping my hand as it stopped my fall. The majestic island, the calls of the ravens in the kingdom of the Alaskan Brown Bears is forever etched upon my soul. -KJC

It wasn't easy living with a bear. The bear didn't talk. It brought things home and stuck them in the way. It would eat certain carefully stocked items until they were completely gone. Sometimes it would take the freshest things first, and leave the older things to get even older. On other days, the bear would bring home huge quantities of fresh food and expired cans of food. It would stash them here and there in the way and then leave them and never use them or look at them again until they started rotting and he had to throw them out. The bear lived like it was by itself. It was constantly moving his things around so that he couldn't find them anymore. He would try to talk to the bear, but often it wouldn't even look at him. He got pretty angry with the bear at times. Like if he just bought eggs and they were very expensive and the bear ate them all up in one sitting, and never replaced them. The bear made messes, and he was always cleaning them up. But even though he...

While wearing a T-shirt with a bear picture on it, an American Indian man told me he was "Bear Clan." I said, "me too." When he questioned this, I said, "When I was 23, I camped in SE Alaska where Brown Bears were abundant and dominant. I saw 9 with no moat or fence between us. My late friend John and I endured a lot that week--until the float plane returned for us. My life was forever changed by the experience." The man had listened quietly until I finished, and then he replied, "yes, you are Bear Clan." By that, he meant I understood the Bear's Spirit.