Calling coyotes I've had a few of them under ten feet. That will get one's adrenaline up a little. Had a hen turkey jump on the toes of my boots as I was sitting near a trail with my feet out in front on me, toes up. She looked around a bit and jumped down, never giving any indication that she saw me.
I cruised timber for a summer, flagging in processor trails and doing add on volume to the sales. On one sale there was a nice meadow at the top end of the sale. One one trail there was a large blow down spruce with a huge root wad right at the edge of the meadow. I stopped at the edge of the root wad for a break and as I stepped around a very large black bear was going around the other side about 12 feet away. He never saw me but must have smelled me when he got downwind as he took off like a scalded cat.
Taking our little trailer camper for a test run shortly after it's purchase, we camped at a nearby campground. We enjoyed a quiet night in the camper and a nice lakeside breakfast. Our morning was rounded out with a nice hike along the lake and a stroll through the campground. As we neared the camper my wife stopped at the restrooms and I continued to the campsite. There behind our camper rubbing his itchy back on the corner of the picnic table was a 300 pound grizzly. He took off for the timber. I turned and my wife was coming back from the rest room. I told what had just happened and she pouted a little that she didn't get to see the bear. I told her to turn around. He was crossing the road 50 feet behind her. He wandered off away from us. We reported the bear to the park hosts. They assured us that they had gotten several reports that morning on that bear. We had to leave that day so never found out what they did about the bear.
Mart
