Porcupine Grizzly
Sitting high on a slide, I spotted a grizzly three miles away. By the time we got there, the bear was gone, but after we had finished eating, he appeared again. Unfortunately, the bear caught wind of us, and I knew he was going to bolt. We waited patiently for him to return, and just as I stood up, I saw him 15 feet away, staring straight at me. I was more startled than he was. I moved out of the way and let Bill have a shot. Up close, we could see that the bear had quills in its face, muzzle, paws, and back. Bill harvested a nice boar with a perfect blonde ring around his neck and down his chest—unique and unusual.
~Story from Spatsizi Wilderness & Fishing Newsletter
In mid-May 1987, Bill Jury and I set out on a grizzly hunt in our Skeena guiding territory. Warm rains had brought the opportunity to change the plane to floats, so we went into a remote lake in the Skeena Country.
When we arrived, we found that porcupines had chewed up the camp. For anyone who knows porcupines like to chew plywood and most of our camp was chewed up... That night, I felt a porcupine crawling over my sleeping bag, I laid completely still hoping to not startle it. Bill thought it was hilarious, but I could barely sleep without wondering if I would get quills in my head for the rest of the night.
For four days, we watched the prime slide areas with no sign of grizzly. Then we found tracks—six sets, and two real dandy sets from 8.5 to 9.5-foot bears.