Close Encounter of the Bear Kind

Like Tanya posted we are having a problem with bears in our area.
On Sunday we packed up a picnic, loaded up the fishing stuff and decided to go to the Lakelse River for a day of fishing. We heard the cohos were started to come in. When we reached our destination, I got out of the van and heard some rustling in the bushes next to me and I said to Scott, "did you hear that?"and he replied, "you're paranoid babe!"
We walked down to the river bank and saw another fisherman down the shore from us. We got settled and noticed a couple fish were jumping. The boys were playing at the top of the sloped bank. I began casting when the fisherman approached us.
He informed us that he had been there for 1.5 hours and had seen 5 bears in that time. At one time he saw 3 bears at the same. Apparently there is an aggressive bear that has been in the area that will not back down. He encountered this one, and had to fire a warning shot!! He said at another time he felt like something was watching him and he looked up above (the river bank is just below the brush and road) and a bear was "watching" him.
Immediately the hairs on the back of my neck began to stand up. Immediately I thought of the "sausage" that was in our picnic lunch.
"Umm...Scott, do you think we should put the food back in the van?" I asked nervously.
"What's in it?" Scott asked.
"A sausage stick!"I answered.
"Uh..yeah..."so off he went to bring the lunch back to the van (there was no way I was going by myself!!!)
So I began to fish and was looking down the riverbank. About 120 feet away I noticed a black thing...
"must be a stump",I thought to myself.
Then I noticed the stump had a nose and was moving back and forth in the bush.
"Scott bear!" I said.
"It's okay..." he said. So I began to fish...feeling a little uneasy...
I was watching this bear and was thinking "I don't like this situation at all" when I noticed ANOTHER bear. This bear was about 90 feet away from us. It was on a bit of an island.
"Scott ANOTHER bear!" I said.
"It's okay it's a ways away!" he said calmly.
Then the bear (on the island) decided to swim onto the shore. Now I was getting nervous (you'd never know that I grew up in the Northwest!!). I didn't want my children to become desserts to a bear.
"Scott!" I said.
"It's okay hun!" he said rationally.
"Yeah it's okay....you're nice and skinny...I'll be the big ol' feast that will ensure the bear a winter of hibernation!" I said hysterically (which caused everyone to laugh!)
"GO AWAY!" I yelled to the bear.
What did the bear do?...he began to walk towards us....
"Yeah...hmmm...I think we should think about going!"Scott said.
Next thing I knew Scott (followed by Seamus) was walking down the shore towards the bear and the bear ran off...meanwhile me, Jonas and Gavin were left behind.
Gavin was trying to find his frog...Jonas got his fishing rod stuck on a stick in a panic and tried with one attempt to get it unhooked then he threw the rod to the ground and ran for his dad. I was left with trying to get Gavin, the rod and myself to safety.
In a panic and (this is when it went to slow motion for me)... I pulled out Jonas' rod which was still attached to a big branch and took it(along with the branch)with us.
We started heading towards the van. We got to the bottom of the little hill and Scott, Seamus, and Jonas were standing still. Scott had just yelled "Scoot!"...
"What you guys do-nin?"Gavin yelled.
"Bear!" Seamus mouthed with a petrified look on his face.
"A bear!"Gavin screamed "Hooway!"...and then... they all look relieved. My 3 year olds voice scared the bear away...THANKFULLY!!
When we got to the van I hustled the boys in and went to throw the rods in the van and Scott said to me,"I don't think we'll have room for this branch!"
I'm telling you, I took out a tree!!
That night over supper we relived our Close Encounter of the Bear Kind...Scott said that the fisherman down the shore must have thought we were a comedy of errors. Seamus said he thought it was funny that I could feed the bear for the winter, and Jonas said he wasn't scared at all! (speaking from the kid who forsaked his fishing rod for safety!)At least we can laugh about it,but I was a little afraid. Needless to say, Scott's not taking the family there anytime soon! He says he'll do it on his own!
Anyhow I hope you all are safe...
Have a good night!
Jenny