Alberta oil camp invaded by bears

[liner]

FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. - Oilsands workers in Alberta know their line of work can be dangerous, but until recently those risks have never included being eaten in their sleep by bears.


http://www.lfpress.com/news/canada/2011/09/15/18690746.html


Hey Pipeman....don't they have a "danger pay" clause in the contract.lol

[bc_]

Hasn't anyone lived/worked in bear country before? If the bears are staying in camp it's because they are finding food there, they must not be managing their garbage properly. Oh my god there are people within eyesight of a bear - yeesh, city folk!

[bc_]

One summer in Lake Louise Ab I was working in the liquor store in a strip mall. Next door was a tiny t-shirt store with no back door because our warehouse ran behind their store. Poor young girl was cooking behind the counter in there and left the front door propped open. Along came a curious young black bear and wandered in to sniff the place out! Now SHE was tense! lol

[bc_]

Another time after a night of partying the girl I was living with had the bright idea we should hitchhike to Canmore to check out the Winter Olympics on our day off. Standing on the side of the highway at the bottom of the off ramp at the entrance to Lake Louise we heard a very unusual noise for a national park - multiple gunshots coming from the townsite.

A little concerned, and getting pretty cold and tired with nobody stopping, we briefly considered heading home. We quickly decided we might just as well wait where we were as the only other option was to walk back up the off ramp towards the gunfire. A short while later we heard some very loud crashing in woods bordering the town site, something getting closer and moving fast. Soon we see a black bear clear the woods running flat out - straight at us! :yikes:

I remember being relieved it wasn't a grizz, but knew it might have been wounded in the gunfire and all the normal bear behavior would be right out the window. Man they can move fast, and fortunately it just kept on moving right past us and across highway. Like usual it had no interest in us.

We found out later the wardens had hit it with a bunch of bean bags to encourage it to find a new hang out.

Wide awake now, we were soon picked up by a friendly trucker who carried us to Canmore for a memorable day. :cool:

[nate980]

You've got some good storys there lol. Ive never come that close thank god but I've seen a lot driving. When I took a load up to mackenzie I stopped every once in awhile to check my chains and I made sure I stopped in wide open areas. I was pretty paranoid a bear might come out of the bush at any moment.
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[Pipeman]

I stayed in a 2,800 man camp last winter. IT JUST TAKES a few a - holes to thrown some food outside or empty their lunch buckets on the ground when they come back to camp.

[bc_]

Yeah Pipeman, that would do it alright. Same guys that would ***** the loudest that "management isn't keeping us safe" probably. I liked the one guy in the story that had figured out how to use it as an excuse to try and get more overtime though.

Nate, next time you are walking in the dark into a silent yard to do your pretrip think of this story.

By now I've realized I want to drive for a living and have got my class 4, and started working for the local taxi/tour company. It's 5 am and I walk several miles across town making first tracks in the deep powder that is still falling heavily. I like to walk at this time as it's the only time it's peacefull in this tourist town and with the fresh snow it was beautiful. I get to the far end of town where the industrial complex is to pick up the taxi. The wind is blowing the snow in my face a bit so I've got my head down, and the deep powder is absorbing all sound of my footsteps.

I come around the corner of the building and start to raise my head to look for the cab and see if the lazy bugger who parked it after the bar shut down the night before had bothered to plug it in for me this time, or if I was in for another nightmare trying to get it going. Just as my head starts to come up I'm startled to hear a loud snort or grunt of shock right in front of me, and I find myself face to face with a bear - who is just as surprised as I am! He was back pedalling like crazy and I really don't know which of us had the bigger shock. lol

[Pipeman]

I don't imagine EOTR will get the contract to eradicate the bears around the camps.

[Marmaduke]

We had a yard in Marathon ON. the bears lived in the back of the property somewhere, just got used to scoping out the yard before getting out of the cab. A few times you would see them in the yard but not very often and the truck would scare them off. Although there was one near Geraldton that used to get berries on the side of the highway in the AM and it would stand right up with it mouth open everytime a truck passed. Was there for about a month.

[Pipeman]

We had a yard in Marathon ON. the bears lived in the back of the property somewhere, just got used to scoping out the yard before getting out of the cab. A few times you would see them in the yard but not very often and the truck would scare them off. Although there was one near Geraldton that used to get berries on the side of the highway in the AM and it would stand right up with it mouth open everytime a truck passed. Was there for about a month.That bear is lucky he wasn't hanging out near Red Lake.:laugh1:

[end of the road]

Bears, wolves and coyotes are just part of life in certain areas. A bear was shot in town last week at the grocery store. There are coyotes I see all the time at the mine. No big deal. We routinely get bears in the back yard and I know there are wolves back there too, see lots of tracks. No big deal.

[liner]

That bear is lucky he wasn't hanging out near Red Lake.:laugh1:

I think the bears around Red Lake are pretty safe as long as EOTR is holding the gun. I remember some old saying that went something like "couldn't hit the broad side of a barn door" :laugh1: