BFRO #12703: Various incidents near a possible nest on Vancouver Island

📍 Location

📝 Description

This incident is a follow-up 3 years ago (Dec 2003 At that time we ran into a den or nest about 15 - 20 feet long constructed of old rotten tree saw-dust, cedar branches and wood shavings, moss, dirt compacted on top of torn and chewed up wood chips about half -a-foot long with branches and twigs all all WEAVED together over top of a big hole which was dug into the ground. Over top of the hole was large trees dragged and placed over the hole. All this led up to a huge old-growth fallen tree crossing the trail. The first thing we noticed then was 15-20 trees had all been "topped"....pushed over, broken off at the height of about 6 feet..and dragged over to make this nest. Debris everywhere. This was an area where there was NO windfall and these trees had been pushed down pointing toward each other and facing down the path toward the den. At this time my husband was already standing on the end of the nest on top of the fallen tree just taking in the scenery when all of a sudden... I noticed a black hole down beside his right leg and two blinking beady silvery black eyes that caught the light. I proceeded to walk on the soft part of the nest when all of a sudden we heard a loud echoing that seemed to be coming all around us from the trees. It sounded like large boulders being thrown down and hitting the trees or someone with a sledge hammer hitting the trees. There were three loud smacks. Then a pause. And then three more loud thumps coming from beneath us with the force of a semi-truck coming into a building...so strong it was pushing me up. I was 15 feet away from the main fallen log my husband was standing on. It seemed like there must have been more logs beneath me in the hole I was standing on. There was another pause...and my husband walked over to where I was standing...we were discussing what was going on when it seemed the 'thing' heard us talking. It gave us three more loud thumps. I thought it would come up from the ground and pull us in. We talked ourselves into believing it was a bear in order to get our legs moving. They were frozen in fear. There was no grunts or growls. There was no odor. But there was a feeling of impending Doom ! We then ran up an embankment thinking it might follow the trail behind us. My husband kept looking back and thought he saw a black thing coming out of the hole. I was expecting it to come from behind when I saw a black object to my left running parallel to me through the woods. I instinctively knew it was heading toward the log we initially crossed over into its territory. I felt it was trying to intercept us. But we got out of there and phoned the Conservation Officer describing it as a bear den. He did not believe us. He did not believe bears could build dens that large; never mind on a trail.

🔍 Circumstances

There were 7 of us.

🌤️ Weather Conditions

3 o clock in the afternoon.Raining with cloudy periods.

ℹ️ Additional Details

3 o clock in the afternoon.Raining with cloudy periods.

🔗 Sources (1)

👥 Community Contributions

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