B.E.A.R.

That would be Bruin Evasion And Resistance; describing in a nutshell Yukon's fishing trip on the Russian River today with his good buddy.

After a 4 a.m. departure from our little hacienda in Anchorage Yukon and D. arrived at the Russian River, down near the beginnings of the Kenai Peninsula, famous for salmon fishing and notorious for big brown bears who love nothing more than convincing their human nemesis to give up a catch. Such was the case for our fellas.

At a prime fishing hole near the confluence of the Kenai and Russian rivers, the two fished for a few hours without the distraction of other fishin folks or fishin bears. But sometime around noon the call came from upriver. "BEAR!"
It happened to be at the same time D. just hooked into a good one. What's a man to do when faced with danger and a sockeye at the same time?

You reel, hard. And hope that your buddy Yukon can manage to scoop big red in the net and backtrack to the stairs at the same time. I knew Yukon's dance lessons would pay off some day, because my darling was able to do just that, with the hook still in the fish's mouth and D. still holding the pole. The two slid backwards to the stairway and up, all while being followed by a young brown bear who appeared very intent on getting that fish.

For those who may not be aware of the rules governing fishing and bears in Alaska, if a bear comes after your fish string, you are supposed to give it to him. Duh. Apparently this is not so simple, however, for the conditioning of a bear takes but a few fish easily obtained, and then the bear goes rogue, and well, we all know what happens when people, er, bears, go rogue....

So D. and Yukon are at the top of the stairs, unwilling to relinquish the fish, and the bear is rapidly ascending said stairs, unwilling to let the matter drop already. Like something out of a comedy movie, bear's head pops up from the stairwell, Yukon and D. rapidly descend another set of stairs (still holding on to the net, the fish, their stuff, and by now probably each other) and head downstream.

According to them, the bear gazed after them for a while, shook his head this way and that, and then went off to go bother some other guys.

I will always wonder if that is indeed the end of it or if there is more....
With these two, there usually is.