In the summer of '88 a man went out fishing. He was headed for a slough about twenty miles from town and when he got to the place where he usually fished he parked his boat and shut off the motor. He got out his rod and reel, snapped on a lure, and cast. After fishing for a while he caught a Dolly Varden. He kept on fishing but after he caught three more fish, since it was getting late, he got ready to go. Just when he was about to get the anchor he saw a giant grizzly on the other side of the slough. It was standing on the point of the bend not too far downstream from him. So he got his gun, took aim and fired. The bear jumped as the bullet entered his right shoulder, and in the blink of an eye it was gone into the thick cover of the brush.

He put down his gun in the boat and picked up the anchor. Then he paddled down to the place where he had seen the bear. The tracks showed clearly in the soft mud where the bear had been standing. He knew he had to go after the bear because he could get big bucks for it. By the size of its tracks he could see a world class bear. So he anchored the boat, got his gun and went after the bear.

When he got into the trees he couldn't see any sign of the bear. He walked straight through the thick brush until he came to a clearing. The clearing had tall grass and about six inches of water in it. There he saw his first signs of the bear. There was a trail in the grass and blood on the trail. So the man pulled up his boots and followed the trail of bent bloody grass. He cocked his gun and put on the safety.

Suddenly the bear stood up right in front of him and let out a horrible roar. He was so startled he dropped his gun and started running. And when he looked back the bear jumped and tackled him. He fell down and in a moment the bear was on top of him. He grabbed his knife from his belt and stabbed the bear. The bear hit him with its claws on the face and he felt pain, more than he'd ever felt before. But he repeatedly stabbed the bear until it died. He crawled out from under the bear and barely made it back to his boat. He looked at his reflection in the water and saw that one side of his face was hanging, almost ripped off. He held his head together with his hands and headed for town. He got to town but on the way to the hospital he died. The grizzly had his revenge.

By: Ben Peteroff