As an outdoor expert, guide, avid outdoorsman and recreational business owner, Elliot Lake's Cam Briffett is used to running into animals in the wild.
Last Sunday, (July 4, 2021) he was driving his truck up Spine Road near Ottawa Avenue in the middle of the day when he came upon a remarkable sight.
A bear was standing by a young woman who was frozen in place with the bear's paws on her shoulders.
She was wearing a backpack and was straddling an e-bike.
Briffett defied conventional advice when he stopped and exited his vehicle. He approached, yelled and gestured at the bruin while acting aggressively.
The male bear, which Briffett estimates was a small adult at 200 pounds, left the woman and started to pursue him.
"If a bear wants to come after you like that in the middle of the day, you know there's something wrong, right away," he said. "She couldn't even speak so I got out to shoo it off her."
He asked her if she was scared but she said nothing.
In response, Briffett said, "Well you can go now."
"She didn't hesitate when he turned to me. It wasn't a full-grown one but it was big enough to give me a good wrestle, for sure. I had to do my lunging, two steps back, one step forward. Then that would stop him. Then he would charge chattering and drooling," Briffett said. "You never give bears permission to come at you. All that bear's going to do is build confidence.
"You've got to move fast, yell and scream and do something. That'll make them think twice. There was a car in my lane and a car coming down and they were just sitting there watching when I pulled up."
Fortunately, Briffett got back into the truck and relative safety. The bear eventually retreated and headed into a wooded area.
He said It looked like it could have been on its way to nearby Spine Beach. The good Samaritan drove to the beach where he found several people relaxing in the area and enjoying some food.
He warned them of the possible danger and also called first responders to advise them of the bear encounter.
He said it was unusual behaviour for bears and speculates there was something wrong with the aggressive animal.
Briffett, who owns Adventure North, speculates the weather and food supply have had a lot to do with the large number of bear encounters in the city these days.
He explained that when we normally get lots of rain in the spring it was warm and dry this year, thus there's a dearth of berry pickings for animals this season.
He said their favourite snacks are mainly available in shaded areas out of the Sun's glare. But they are in short supply.
The implication is that animals venture away from their natural habitat to where people with food reside to find what they can eat in our neighbourhoods.
"I don't have any pictures of the girl because I was getting my phone ready as I was getting out. I put it on 'camera' and just started clicking. He was already off of her," added Briffett.
"When I got my first picture is when he turned on me. I didn't get any more pictures after that because I was trying to get back into my truck," he concluded.
