Captain Dan takes on a Bear

My friend, Captain Dan went to Alaska to hunt bear. He recently told me the most fascinating tale about his Alaskan adventures. To hunt for bear, Captain Dan secured a guide who was an expert hunter that flew him by private plane to an isolated island. Together they tracked a particular bear for 3 days. Unfortunately, every time the bear would get close to where they were a group of geese (that also inhabited the island) would fly up into the air and the bear would run away spooked by the commotion. Captain Dan told the guide, that he was determined to kill that bear. The guide for some reason needed to fly back into town and Captain Dan begged him to leave him on the island. Against the guide’s best judgment, he did.

The following day, Captain Dan tracked the bear relentlessly. He finally saw the bear, just as the day was coming to a close and the sun was hanging low in the sky. He shot at it and it fell, he had killed it! Now there was another problem…other bears that would be tracking the scent of death. He had only hours to skin, gut, bag and bury the remains until the guide would return the next day. Somehow he managed through the night. In the morning the guide came and flew Captain Dan back into the town. Captain Dan generously donated the bear meat to an assisted living home and had the bear prepared to bring back to his home in MS. He paid a mighty fortune for the bear to be flown home.

Dan took it to a local taxidermist, wanting to have the bear made into a bear skin rug. The taxidermist talked him into a wall mount of the bear because the bear was “a fighter”. He was a male who was scarred and not “a beauty specimen” for the likes of a rug. Captain Dan was convinced, agreed, and left the bear’s remains with the taxidermist-who had a backlog of animals to get to. Captain Dan’s bear was placed into a freezer until the taxidermist could get to him. Unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina swept across the Mississippi gulf coast, that Captain Dan calls home. So much was destroyed in the area and power was off. Captain Dan somehow managed to locate the taxidermist and get his bears remains before it was ruined. He drove his bear inland to another taxidermist who made it into a nice wall mount. The rest is history.....

I thought this was the most fascinating story. I asked (And saw ) pictures to back the story up. Captain Dan always has a way of telling a story. Certainly, mine ran on and did not have the same flavor that Dan puts into it but it is a fascinating tale of fact.