I was working as a geological assistant in the Yukon Territories.   I was in a fly in camp on a lake.  We would fly into camp by plane and then set up camp. We were above the tree line so there was only shrubs and plants covering the ground.   There were 7 people in camp.  Each morning we would be flown out by helicopter to work to do geological field work while walking the ridges chosen by the party chief. We were then flown back to camp each night.  Our helicopter was grounded as we waited for a part to be flown in.  We had been in camp 3 or 4 days waiting for the arrival of the helicopter part.  Having sat in camp for that many days I decided I would walk around the lake we were camped on.  Upon going around the end of the lake in my cloth sided very thin rubber soled running shoes rather than my very sturdy hiking boots I thought I might climb the grassy slope to the top of the mountain.  I would go as far as I could in my flimsy footwear.  Upon getting to the top I decided to walk along the ridge to the other end of the lake and then descend to the lake and walk around the lake back to camp.  Upon arriving above the other end of the lake I realized the slope here was talus.  Talus is large boulders 1 foot to 3 feet across with sharp edges.  I decided I could likely pick my way down carefully but noticing the time I knew I should hurry as supper would be soon and the cook being the only one who had to work today would be very unhappy if I was late for supper.   About 1/3 of the way down I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye.  I looked over to see a grizzly bear coming straight for me across the slope.  My first thought was to look for a tree but being above the tree line there were none to be found.   I turned toward the bear and started waving my arms and yelling at it.  It continued across the slope until it was 10 to 12 feet away.  It stopped waved its head side to side with slobber dripping from his mouth.  For those of you unaware, the grizzly bear is at the top of the food chain.  In the wild everything runs from the grizzly bear including the black bear.  This grizzly could not understand why this creature standing on his hind legs which is I am told a sign of aggression to a grizzly bear. The bear also wondered why was I not running away as all other creatures did.  The bear continued to wave his head from side to side.  I had grasped my knees long before and continued to yell and scream at the bear.  "Get out of here" "Go away" "Help" whatever came to my head.  I realized I did not have my geology hammer with me, not so much as a pen knife.  The bear started to circle me going uphill.  He circled until he was directly above me.  I was moving so I was facing the bear at all times with my hands on my knees.  The grizzly bear then lunged toward me.  I didn't move a muscle.  I could not show any sign of weakness. The grizzly bear spun around and slowly walked up the hill 100 feet.  I just stood there as I had been told not to run as the bear would run me down very quickly and if you ran it was a sign of weakness to the bear.   The bear turned got on his hind feet looked at me waving his head side to side. The bear got down on all 4 feet walked up hill another 100 feet, turned and got on his hind feet one more time waving his head side to side.  The bear walked off and when it was far enough away for comfort I slowly turned and walked very slowly down the mountainside and back to camp.  I have since been told that standing up to the bear saved my life. 

Why did I not run when I first saw the bear?  Why did I not move when the bear lunged at me?   Was there a third man there telling me what to do and not do?  What was I doing out there so poorly equipped for the situation? Why did I climb the mountain and not just stay by the shore of the lake as I originally planned?

We saw 17 bears in 14 days while visiting that lake.  Whether from the helicopter, walking the creek beds or working the ridges.