Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Grizzly Kills Bicycle Tourist

You can't trust a bear. You can never trust a bear, even one that seems tame. We had our own Timothy Treadwell-type here in North Carolina. "The Bear Lady" in Dare/Tyrell Co. NC lived in a mobile home out in the swamp in an area with the highest density of black bears, and some of the biggest, in the US. She "protected" them by attracting them to her property, feeding them, by hand.



She walked with them and named them. Even let them come into her trailer. Then she decided to take on area hunters by placing chains and locks blocking access to hunting areas that she didn't own. She had to be warned to stay off other peoples property, and I believe she was eventually charged.

In January 2015 she was reported missing by family. Authorities found her strewn skeleton and clothes scattered in the swamp not too far from her trailer. She had been dragged there and eaten by the bears she "protected."

I go into that swamp a lot. There's a metric shiit load of bears. I've never had problems with any. Only two have been remotely aggressive. But I have had them follow me on trails, and keep coming when we've met on trails going in opposite directions. I always carry in the swamp. Because you can't trust a bear.