The incident happened during a job in Northeastern Ontario, close to the Quebec border. Sometime in the middle of September 2006, on a beautiful warm, sunny day, my partner and I were working growth and yield plots (PGP) obtaining information to determine the health of the forest. I know the closest town to the incident was about 65kms away. Matheson, Ontario. Our plot was located about 700 metres North from the road were we had parked the truck. I remember the walk into the plot being annoyingly brushy for the first 100 metres or so, a lot of red osier dogwood and tag alder making it a chore to carry our tools to the work site. At the true location of the plot, the trees were mature and the sun beamed in and down.
After we had completed measuring trees within the plot we starting aging test trees. Suddenly we heard what sounded like an old rotten log being ripped apart just metres from where we were working. We both stood up and gave a little attention to the noise, hoping to determine if we were too close to a bear. Through my own evaluation of the noise, I decided to walk back to my vest and grab a can of bear spray, and a soil auger. As I returned to my partner I asked if the bear was persistant in rummaging the log. My partner's reply was that it seemed to circle around us back toward the vehicle.
Again we heard noise, this time the movement of shaley rock like the heavy paws crushing the shale: cush..cush...cush. Neither of us could get a visual of the bear, and decided it was cautiously avoiding us. So we continued working the plot. About 10 minutes later my partner finished drilling soil with the auger, and had laid down the soil sample to take notes when a huge wet boomerang- shaped chunk of rotten tree root was thrown into the canopy above us, crashed past branches, arched over toward us and landed just to the left of where I was standing. My partner stood up quickly to look around. Startled by the incident, he said, "Of all the years in the bush...that was f*#king weird."
I asked him if other crews were in the area. We had the only paper work that could possibly compass anyone to our location. So I yelled "Ryan? Steve?...whatever guys!" but who could possible throw a wet rotten chunk of wood weighing about 55lbs that far, that high? Suddenly another smaller stick flew the same path as the root, again landing close by us. "THAT'S IT!!!" I decided to walk toward the direction that the flying objects were coming from. I still had no visual of anything as I started losing sight of my partner and then Bang.
I'm standing absolutly still thinking to myself, Who would place an 8ft tall haystack here in the middle of nowhere? It was a precarious-looking haystack. Then I realize it's not a haystack. I remember thinking to look away before you scare it or it moves. My heart and breathing lost rhythm, and shock prevented me from moving normally. I caught my breath painfully enough so I could walk back to my partner.
Decisions and memory felt distorted and everything raced through my mind as I continued toward my partner. I asked myself over and over, did that just happen? DID THAT JUST HAPPEN? When I arrived back to the work site about 200-300 metres away, my partner asked. "So, what is it?" I replied "Nothing, let's finish up quick, and get the f@#k out of here." I never told poor Luke who continues working out there what I saw that day, or that I was treated for anxiety as a result when we returned home.
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(Link: bfro.net)