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I Killed A Bear

Dead To MeI was having a little trouble coming up with a title for this post, so I decided to skip the usual witty title in favor of the blunt and straightforward “I Killed A Bear”, since that is exactly what happened on Thursday night.

Judy & I were on the road to The Cabin, which is located between Rhinelander and Eagle River. Mike & Sue weren’t able to make it up there this past weekend, so they offered to let us take over and bring some friends. Judy & I decided to make a long weekend of it and took Friday off work. It’s a 4+ hour drive, and hit the road immediately after work on Thursday.

About 8:15, we were well North of Wausau, passing by Tomahawk on Highway 51. The highway there is 2 lanes in either direction, with maybe 150 yards of grassland & shrubbery between them. Judy saw him first, but I didn’t pick him up until he was crossing into the Southbound lanes. From a quarter-mile away, it looked like a big dog that had run out of the woods. It was, in fact, a Black Bear. Probably not full grown, but still about 200 pounds or so.

Did you know that a Black Bear can run as fast as 25 miles per hour?

Neither did I.

As he took off across the median and into our path, I slowed down and moved away from him into the right lane. When I saw that he was still zeroeing in on us, I slammed on the brakes. We skid for a few seconds, then slammed into the bear. He was hit in the right-rear quarter of his body with the front-right end of my car; I was concentrating on staying on the road at that point, but Judy saw him go flying through the air and into a ditch.

We pulled over immediately, as did a truck that was following behind us. We got out to check for damage, then walked back to the truck. They were concerned that we had blown a tire - the skidding had left a pretty thick smell in the air that they thought was a blowout.

When Judy asked how the bear was, they simply shook their heads and said, “he’s dead”. While I was pretty sure that he was, we didn’t think it was a good idea to check for ourselves - just in case he wasn’t.

The only damage to the car was that a crack in the bumper got a bit larger, and some paint on the bumper flaked off at the impact point. (Gotta love the Saturn!)

Having never actually killed anything before, I can’t say that I feel good about it.

This entry was posted on August 21, 2006 at 1:19 pm, filed under Personal and tagged . Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

Comments

6 Comments

  1. I think we’re cursed. I hit a chipmunk this afternoon on the way to a meeting in Muskego. I swerved, and I swear he ran TOWARD me, like he wanted to be hit. Creepy. The Buchs have blood on their wheels…

    Posted August 21, 2006 at 5:39 pm by Judy .

  2. Let’s hope that you didn’t kill the
    Kuchina Bear or one of his offspring.

    Posted August 23, 2006 at 11:15 am by Chuck .

  3. Don’t you realize that this makes you a Hero?!

    *sigh* Where’s the late-night taxidermist when you need one?

    Posted August 24, 2006 at 9:37 am by Miriam .

  4. Are you going to require therapy for the blood you now have on your hands (or car)?

    Glad that the both of you are okay — but I feel sorry for the bear.

    Posted August 24, 2006 at 3:41 pm by Mother Hen .

  5. It was you or him, Mr. RISK. Don’t sweat it.

    Posted August 25, 2006 at 3:16 pm by Les .

  6. I don’t know what to say. I am an animal lover but you killed a friggin bear. 1 in maybe 50,000 people can say that….

    “So Bryan, what did you do thid weekend?”

    “Not much. Caught up on some reading, watched golf on T.V., AND KILLED A FRIGGIN BEAR!!! How about you?”

    “Nothing.”

    End of conversation.

    Posted August 29, 2006 at 12:26 am by Corey .

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