An awesome encounter

I was canoeing down the Red Cedar River near rice lake WI and I looked up ahead and all of a sudden I saw the face of a bear about 20 yards in from the shore line. I pulled the canoe up to land to try and get a good picture of him and the little guy walked right up to us and came within 10 feet of us! We sat there for probably 20 minutes just looking at him and making faces with him back and forth. It was one of the coolest encounters I have had in the outdoors. It was something small but I will remember it for the rest of my life.

Awesome experience, thanks for sharing! That is why I love floating rivers, always see cool stuff! Don't listen to the haters, there is always some idiot that will find fault in anything you do!

your lucky momma was not close or it might have been a different story but cool pictures for sure

Thanks Josh!

I had a similar encounter last summer, a teenager was popping his choppers because he wanted to look in my garage.He also was surprisingly close and it took shooting my shotgun in the air to get him to leave.Very curious creatures, you are lucky to have an experience like that.

I'm happy you had a meaningful experience. That bear knows the smell of humans now, and knows not to be afraid. Bears like this are the same ones who end up shot or trapped because they get hungry and starts hanging around campgrounds and neighborhoods. Next time do the animal a favor and scare him off or at the very least keep moving away and keep a respectable distance. I spend a lot of time in bear country, and if one lets you see it, there is something wrong and it's a bad situation from both ends.

This one came walking toward our houseboat gangplank when we anchored off an island in Lake of the woods Canada

To all the trolls that have something negative to say no matter what, obviously I didn't just walk up to this bear and start taking pictures. We stayed at a safe distance for a good 15-20 minutes making noise and letting whatever would of been there know we were there. Then we canoed up to shore and the little guy walked right up to us. It was an awesome experience and I would do it again in a heart beat. Of course I was concerned about momma bear. But I was as safe as I possibly could be and I didn't want to pass the opportunity up to take some pictures.

Just awesome TSW! Congrats, I'd love to have the opportunity to see the same thing. Cheers

Nice pics very cool glad you got to see the cute and cuddly. Those are the moments that we remember as outdoorsmen. And to the those have nothing but neg to say, with great risk comes great reward! You got to see something not many do! Good job

Whacker, I'm not going to continue the banter. I would have done the same thing as you!!! I although would of been wary of the sow. So I am guessing you thought of the same issue. Especially if you have spent anytime in the bear woods. Thanks for the pictures. Big Mac

Because we know a sow will not mess around if it was there. The "parade" could be a "statistic". Better safe then then sorry.

Why do certain people have to rain on people's parade!!!!??? It's a fresh out of den cub getting to search a new world!! It will NOT set in place a life- long lack of fear/danger of humans! The sow will have time to teach her cub. Hopefully it's not an orphan. Big Mac

so i guess he/she has learned not to be afraid of people now

Real lucky mama wasn't around.

Very neat. Good thing momma wasn't in view!