It’s midsummer in Alaska, and with the crush of tourists, Alaskans, Lower 48 and foreign types that spread out over the Greatland, it is a time of great abundance: daylight, fish and the almost jungle-like canopy of flora.

It is also a time of abundance for our gigantic wildlife, and they need it to feed themselves and their young. They are very protective, not cuddly squeeze toys nor cartoon characters – and they are dangerous.

They are also everywhere. We recently had a black bear enter the produce department of a military commissary, smart enough to open the automatic doors and help itself to ripe peaches. The Kenai Peninsula is home to the planet’s largest moose, dwarfing those in New England and Europe. Some 40% of their calves wind up as bear food, and anyone – including the family lap-yapper dog – can easily be perceived as a threat by the protective cow moose.

We all know how mindless tourists react in Yellowstone when they see a moose, buffalo, or best of all, a bear. Fortunately, my 50 years in this state have seen very little of such idiotic behavior. But there is one spot where the bets are off.

Beware, all you dip-netters coming down here soon: there is NO SHOULDER when you go through Cooper Landing, and when the Kenai River comes alongside the Sterling Highway, that is where you might find BOTH lanes blocked by a tourist.

Seeing their first moose or black or brown bear is, for them, like seeing Bigfoot. All precautions of traffic safety, visibility at curves in the road and common sense take a back seat, so that their “bucket list” is fulfilled on the phone cameras.

With all this being said, we had a close call here the other day in a Kenai subdivision, located not far from where dip-netters will be packed near the mouth of the Kenai River. A brown bear sow and two cubs came waddling through a subdivision on K-Beach Road. One early-rising neighbor watched them cross his property and sought to call and alert his neighbors. However, at 4:55 in the morning, most folks have their cell phones off and recharging.

Too bad. Nearby, a woman let her two dogs out for early morning relief, only to find herself smack-dab into the trio of bears. One dog came back into the house, but the other – and this is an admitted presumption here – likely “defended” its family and turf by annoying the sow. Eager to protect her pet and frighten it away, the woman grabbed a .410 shotgun. No, she had the good sense not to shoot at it, merely to make a loud noise to (hopefully) get it to skedaddle. It is something that I might have done, too.

Instead, it charged her on the front deck, mauling her sufficiently to crack 5-6 ribs (a more serious injury than it sounds) and make a dozen or so lacerations. Medevac’d to Anchorage, her condition is serious, but fortunately not life-threatening.

We Alaskans can easily be lulled into complacency: “I’ve walked my neighborhood for years and never had a wildlife encounter. They don’t show up here.”

Oh, ya think? Watch this video.

Everywhere in Alaska – summer and winter – we need to be aware and always assume the worst. And you can be sucker-punched, despite all precautions: Over 30 years ago, the first tourist bus in May at Denali Park found a typical retired woman, who was the last off the bus and heading towards the main visitor center in the parking lot, was attacked and killed. Nearby, unknown even to Park Rangers, was a moose carcass, serving as a food cache for a grizzly.

Just last year, an experienced wildlife photographer in Homer, eager to take snapshots of a moose cow and her calf, was a safe distance away. But then he maneuvered around some brush for a better angle, and losing sight of them, found out that they had moved as well. Surprising them, he had no chance, as the cow trampled him to death.

So, despite making noise, despite giving a wide berth, and despite keeping your dogs on a leash, what do you do if you are attacked? My wife and I frequently walk the nature trails a half-block from our home, with our dogs. They are moose savvy and don’t harass them, but the moose, conditioned to detest all dogs from previous encounters, charged right at us. I pulled out my .44 revolver, and for the first and only time in my life, actually cocked it. My wife found refuge behind a medium-sized tree, and it rushed past her twice as she maneuvered side to side.

And then the moose thankfully retreated.

This column cannot contain all the options. Enter the wild or even a neighborhood, and you must make your own decisions about pepper spray, guns, and, God forbid – playing dead or fighting back. And no one should think of you as a macho “cowboy” just because you have a firearm at your side.

Above all, remember, Alaska is NOT a theme park.

The views expressed here are those of the author.

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