132
I got off my ATV to survey the situation. The truck and trailer were truly stuck. I
asked Katie to pull forward, to no avail. I asked Katie to pull backwards, no luck
either. At this stage, we were left with no choice but to temporarily abandon our
fieldwork to seek help from local residents to help pull us out. We drove the ATV to
the nearest house where we were directed to another house where guys with a truck
and chains could help tow us out. As luck would have it, we found the right people
to help us out of our predicament. Two young men got in their vehicle and came to
the truck to help us out the ditch. In just a few minutes, the truck was extricated and
the two helpful young men were on their merry way. At this point, it was almost
dusk and Katie assumed that we would be heading back home without the other data
from the southern part of the Reserve. Katie was mistaken!
We jumped onto the ATV and started off for the remaining well sites (Fig. 8.10).
A few minutes down the dirt road into the reserve, Katie pointed at something moving along the road in the distance.
“I think it is a bear”, I said.
“A bear?! But we don’t have any protection!” Katie protested.
“The ATV is sufficient protection”, I answered, “As long as we are driving and are on
the ATV, we should be fine – on to the field sites!”
Sure enough, it was a bear that we saw. As we approached, it started running towards us
on the narrow road. I responded by stepping on the gas!
“The bear is playing chicken with us”, I said, “and we are not going to blink!”
We raced towards each other and I started to sweat. About 30 feet (9 m) away from
the ATV, the bear leapt into the canal next to the road! We continued on to our sites,
seeing many bears of different sizes frolicking and playing on the dirt road. I have
never seen so many bears in my life. In fact, in all my years working at the reserve,
Fig. 8.9 Lunch break on a pier overlooking the Alligator River, “Inner Banks”, NC. (Image by
A. Manda)
A. K. Manda
I got off my ATV to survey the situation. The truck and trailer were truly stuck. I
asked Katie to pull forward, to no avail. I asked Katie to pull backwards, no luck
either. At this stage, we were left with no choice but to temporarily abandon our
fieldwork to seek help from local residents to help pull us out. We drove the ATV to
the nearest house where we were directed to another house where guys with a truck
and chains could help tow us out. As luck would have it, we found the right people
to help us out of our predicament. Two young men got in their vehicle and came to
the truck to help us out the ditch. In just a few minutes, the truck was extricated and
the two helpful young men were on their merry way. At this point, it was almost
dusk and Katie assumed that we would be heading back home without the other data
from the southern part of the Reserve. Katie was mistaken!
We jumped onto the ATV and started off for the remaining well sites (Fig. 8.10).
A few minutes down the dirt road into the reserve, Katie pointed at something moving along the road in the distance.
“I think it is a bear”, I said.
“A bear?! But we don’t have any protection!” Katie protested.
“The ATV is sufficient protection”, I answered, “As long as we are driving and are on
the ATV, we should be fine – on to the field sites!”
Sure enough, it was a bear that we saw. As we approached, it started running towards us
on the narrow road. I responded by stepping on the gas!
“The bear is playing chicken with us”, I said, “and we are not going to blink!”
We raced towards each other and I started to sweat. About 30 feet (9 m) away from
the ATV, the bear leapt into the canal next to the road! We continued on to our sites,
seeing many bears of different sizes frolicking and playing on the dirt road. I have
never seen so many bears in my life. In fact, in all my years working at the reserve,
Fig. 8.9 Lunch break on a pier overlooking the Alligator River, “Inner Banks”, NC. (Image by
A. Manda)
A. K. Manda