Cheney Free Press -

I was scared. Like cold sweat, heart pounding scared. I knew it was all over. A bear was going to have me for lunch.

It was late summer and the bear population was pretty serious about getting fat before winter. We didn’t see bears very often, but there were plenty of signs that they were around.

Our Forest Service trail crew was camped on War Creek. We were maybe a week into a two-week trip and about eight miles in from the trailhead. The four-man crew was doing trail maintenance, and I was doing the cooking and tending to the camp and the packhorses. We were making use of an old trapper...