Time Warp Tuesday --- The Pig Farm

The last few weeks I have been talking about some of my hunting and fishing stories, and I couldn't leave this one out. I was probably 14 or 15 and we went hunting at a place referred to as "The Pig Farm". At one time it was a place where pigs were raised, but now was pretty much just a big hunting area. The Pig Farm is located right along side Interstate 80.

My uncle and a friend were going to put on a drive through the pig farm (by walking through the woods with the hope of "driving" the deer toward us). On the opposite side of the woods was a large clearing....but the brush was probably 4-foot tall. My dad stood on top of the hill and sent me to the bottom (right next to I-80). From where he stood, he could see everything happening in the woods and could see me as well. At the bottom where I stood was one path that was cleared (probably to ride 4-wheelers or something). So I stood in the middle of the path, surrounded by a wall of brush.

About 15 minutes after getting there I could hear my dad trying to yell about something. I looked up at him and he was waving, jumping up and down, and trying to get my attention. So I figured the deer must be coming! I had no idea what he was yelling...the noise of the cars flying by on I-80 drowned out what he was trying to say.

Then, I saw my dad motioning for me to come up on top of the hill with him. Maybe the deer had walked out of the woods and was standing in the field up by him? When I looked down the path I was standing on, I saw a dog in the woods running. It happened very fast as it was moving towards us and of course it wasn't going to attempt to run through the 4-foot brush, so it started running down the path I was standing on.

When it got about 40 yards away running full speed directly towards me, I realized something...this is not a dog...its a bear! I had to think fast what to do as we were going to meet head on, and very soon! Should I shoot it? Should I play dead? I certainly wasn't going to outrun the thing!

I just kind of froze for a second or two and it got probably 10 yards from me...still in an all-out sprint. At the last moment, I turned and jumped off the path and into the brush and ran for dear life. I never looked back, but apparently the bear just continued running down the path (probably just a scared as I was from our drivers). I continued to run up the hill to my dad and tried to act as though it wasn't a big deal (I figured he would be mad because I could hear what he was yelling), but we all kind of laughed about it. I can proudly say...at least I didn't pee my pants!