Ready we had a somewhat similar incident occur in the Brooks range though with a griz sow and her two cubs. We'd camped in a saddle and were up doing our morning routine when in walks the sow and her two cubs. I watched them mostly from the scope of my 7 mag.
when they moved on through and caught our scent, they hightailed it out of there. Looked beyond my scope to see my pard had been watching them through the lil video camera we took with us. WTF ? says I, why didn't you grab your rifle. He replied, saw you had yours, figured that was enough and we got some cool video.
so thankful that didn't go ugly. I've not had to do it, but pards have, kill a sow and then forced to kill the cubs to save them from a worse fate. Not a fun job.
