www.roanoke.com

Several hundred yards through the hardwood forest from where Morris Gill of Fincastle reported a bear at his deck and feeders earlier in the summer, Jack(Murky) Thomas, who was out for a morning squirrel hunt came into contact with a three hundred pound bear on Saturday morning.

Thomas had a pistol with him and single shot .22 rifle and not many bullets. He came out of the woods on the hill across from his house with his morning's bag of two squirrels. He saw something in his peripheral vision running parallel to him. He stopped so it could get past a wooded fence line and what popped out in the field below him was a sight that set his teeth on edge. A black bear, he estimated at 300 pounds, stood straight up in front of him some 30-40 yards away. It smelled the air and looked to the left and right then looked him straight in the eye.

Thomas had no shells in his guns and dug in his pockets to find something to reload both weapons. "It gave me a chilling feeling," he said. "I am over 6 feet tall and on two legs the bear was taller than me." The bear dropped down on all fours and walked away, but stopped several times to look back at him.

Bears sightings or stories? We blog them here and the Roanoke Times' Matt Chittum has a map of area sightings for you to peruse on the Datasphere!You can let us know at: News@botetourtview.com or
matt.chittum@roanoke.com.