Observations Of A Wilderness Guide By Clint

A Wilderness Guide of many years in a magnificent land will chance to observe many things as they come to pass.

Responsibility

Liability rests squarely on the shoulders of the guide and he must react accordingly.
Everyone is directly accountable to someone for his or her individual actions in the wilderness.

Weather

Tourists unanimously agree inclement weather is solely the fault of Alaskans.
Visitors often comment that "they brought the good weather with them".
No one has yet taken the responsibility for storing the bad weather.
The wind blows and it rains at city zoos all over the world.
New York airports have more weather flight delays than Homer, Alaska.

Bears

When the bears become extinct, man will follow shortly
Every bear has a different mentality, tolerance & reaction.
Bears recognize human fear by scent and body language.
Bears really do not want to be your friend (sorry Tim).
A hungry, injured or frightened bear knows no rules.
A breeding male bear or female bear with cubs makes the rules.
The male bear is the dominant species of under current rules.
Weaned juvenile bears are almost always hungry, curious & unpredictable.
Stalking people is a unnerving game played by some bears.
Bears learn on the first encounter, while it takes humans two or three tries.
Electric camp fences are a form of bear torture pending retribution.
Stress in bears can cause a similar unpredictable reaction as stress in man.
The human species is the most easily humbled by a bear confrontation.

Common Sense

Do not assume nature is always going to cooperate in any given manner.
The desire to challenge nature is a sure indication of a fool.
Common sense is the most valuable wilderness trait one can possess.
Assumption and ignorance are natural common traits to some people.
Arrogance awards belong to one particular foreign country.
If you forget to bring the film, it will cost $900 to go back for it.
The little wheels on some luggage do not work well on sand beaches.
The ability of a camera to sink quickly is directly proportionate to its price.
What you cannot see really can hurt you.
Guns & pepper spray alone are not effective as common sense.
Quick Draw McGraw is not nearly as fast as an angry bear at 20 feet.
Reliance on a firearm for protection against bears is a sure sign of a fool.
One must know and understand where you stand at all times.

Observations

Frightened people constantly ask questions, but never hear the answers.
Frustrated people almost always attempt to lay blame elsewhere.
The instruction by the guide "To be quiet" is always taken as relative to the guest's everyday life environment.
Singing & clapping are best reserved for barn dances and Sunday services, not coastal brown bear habitat areas.
Avid birders have very high observation skills, which are truly enjoyable.
Schoolteachers & farmers adapt easily to a wilderness environment.
Women listen and follow a guide's instruction more closely than men.
Many professional wildlife photographers are fast replacing the poachers of days past.

Self-proclaimed Experts are people more than 50 miles from their home.
Wilderness experience is relative only to where it was obtained.
Yellowstone Park is 3000 miles from Katmai.
There are more Park Rangers in Yellowstone than all Alaska Parks combined.

A cow moose is a more formidable opponent to a bear than the Bull Moose.
Moose are less predictable than bears.
Wolverines are even less predictable than moose.
Porcupines are somewhat predictable.
Alaska's Yupik Natives enjoy eating porcupines.

Others who say it even better

What is man without beasts?  If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit.
For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man.  All things are connected.
Seattle, Chief of the Duwamish, Suquamish Indian Tribes

The zoo cannot but disappoint.  The public purpose of zoos is to offer visitors the opportunity of looking at animals.
Yet nowhere in a zoo can a stranger encounter the look of an animal.  At the most, the animals gaze flickers and
passes on.  They look sideways.  They look blindly beyond.
John Berger 1926 British author and critic

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