As if his three day shipwreck experience wasn't traumatic enough,while packing his gear he rounded the tent to confront a large brown bear which reared up on its hind legs. "Incredulous, we stared each other out, but he finally took off into the bush. It was not one of my better days", he chuckled wryly.

That year was also the summer of strange bear behavior-apparently due to a shortage of berries and such encounters were frequent. Backed up to the edge of an overhang by a brown bear, he kept it at bay by using his backpack stove as a flame thrower. Another time he awoke in his tent as a bear sniffed and poked at him from the other side of the tent.

He awoke one morning to find a pack of wolves eyeing his camp, and exhausted one night along the North Saskatchewan River's muddy banks, he unwittingly set up camp in the middle of a moose trail. This did not become apparent until he awoke in the middle of the night with the ground shaking around his tent!