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Wild in Alaska: Charlie Vandergaw Shares Home With Grizzlies
ABC News ^ | September 1, 2009 | Kimberly Launier & Jay Schadler

Posted on 09/02/2009 10:18:29 AM PDT by jazusamo

Alaska is a land of contrasts. Thirty minutes in a bush plane will transport a visitor to another world, somewhere over the rainbow-trout streams. Glaciers of turquoise ice float next to forests in this wilderness. Bear country, as nature intended -- and then altered by man.

It is a fitting place for eccentric bear enthusiast Charlie Vandergaw to play by his own rules.

"That's what I like about Alaska, because I can live like I want to live. Fish or hunt, and you don't have to answer to anyone out here. You're not controlled by other people," Vandergaw said.

But he does need to answer to the grizzlies. They are among the largest predators walking the planet, quietly moving through the last remnants of wild nature -- and into Vandergaw's imagination.

"I think I'm mesmerized by grizzly bears. I love the black bears, but there's just something about a grizzly bear that is hypnotic to me," he said.

By anyone's standard, Charlie Vandergaw lives a life less ordinary. The 71-year-old retired science teacher from Anchorage has spent the last two decades in the remote Alaskan bush where, by his own choice, his closest neighbors are animals powerful enough to kill him with a swipe of their 5-inch claws.

"I got started on this innocent enough. I was living out here alone and they became friends. A couple different ones actually came in and sought my friendship and once I had that happen to me I was lost," Vandergaw said.

Vandergaw has admittedly succumbed to the spell of bears. He's carved a life for himself out of pine trees and dirt, constructing a cabin he calls "Bear Haven," along with a few other outpost buildings. Otherwise, his remaining 40 acres are untouched.

(Video and pics at link)

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: Outdoors; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: alaska; grizzlybear; napl; vandergaw
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When he's eventually eaten let's hope he doesn't take someone with him like Treadwell did.
1 posted on 09/02/2009 10:18:30 AM PDT by jazusamo
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To: george76; girlangler; Flycatcher; SunkenCiv
"You know something is about to explode when a grizzly comes in," Vandergaw said.

Yep!

2 posted on 09/02/2009 10:23:38 AM PDT by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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To: jazusamo
Leave the bears alone you fool!......
3 posted on 09/02/2009 10:25:11 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: jazusamo

This can’t end well...


4 posted on 09/02/2009 10:25:31 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: jazusamo
You are referring to Timothy Snackwell, I assume.

It saddens me that the actual Snackwell product is no longer made, and my joke thus gets less funny with the passage of time.

Kinda like the passage of Timothy through the bear's upper and lower G.I. tract, I guess.

5 posted on 09/02/2009 10:25:39 AM PDT by I Buried My Guns
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To: jazusamo

This could be the best possible “Mother-in Law” vacation trip!


6 posted on 09/02/2009 10:28:19 AM PDT by montomike (Politics should be about service and not a lucrative, money-making opportunity!)
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To: I Buried My Guns

Vandergaw is older and tougher, he may not pass through as easily.


7 posted on 09/02/2009 10:29:21 AM PDT by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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To: Billthedrill

There are some creatures who’s sole purpose in life is to one day become food for another creature. It’s a noble enough goal, I suppose.


8 posted on 09/02/2009 10:33:29 AM PDT by Ramius (Personally, I give us... one chance in three. More tea?)
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To: jazusamo

So he’s kinda like tough jerky? Yum, old people.


9 posted on 09/02/2009 10:35:35 AM PDT by I Buried My Guns
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To: jazusamo

The prob;lem is that bears with no fear of humans are trouble. It can get humans and bears killed. The damned fools around here feed gators, the gators scare someone and have to be killed.


10 posted on 09/02/2009 10:40:25 AM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (THE SECOND AMENDMENT, A MATTER OF FACT, NOT A MATTER OF OPINION)
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To: jazusamo

skeptical state officials have charged Vandergaw with 20 counts of illegally feeding game. Also charged were two friends accused of assisting him.

10,000 POUNDS OF DOG FOOD

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/bears/story/801034.html


11 posted on 09/02/2009 10:41:41 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

Exactly, I would guess some or most of these bears will be killed because of this idiot.


12 posted on 09/02/2009 10:42:35 AM PDT by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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To: jazusamo

They’ll be finding bits of him in a necropsy on one of his buddies one day. Like the famous Czechoslovakian scientist a few years ago who turned up missing, and when they found two grizzlies nearby they shot the bigger one because the Czech’s in the male...


13 posted on 09/02/2009 10:44:16 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: jazusamo; BIGLOOK; Grampa Dave; LucyT; proud_yank; PhilDragoo; tubebender; XeniaSt; MtnClimber; ...

14 posted on 09/02/2009 10:44:34 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: jazusamo
By not carrying a gun he has left himself no recourse when the SHTF.

I hope I never go soft.

My Dad who taught me how to hunt and has been my hunting partner my entire life has gone soft. He started feeding deer and they have become pets.

He doesn't hunt anymore and it is sad.

I am at the top of the food chain and a carnivore for life until God says otherwise.

15 posted on 09/02/2009 10:46:53 AM PDT by Manic_Episode (Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps...)
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To: george76

Thanks for finding that and posting it.

Seems ABC didn’t want to mention that part due to the pimping for their program and the Animal Planet program.

Reading this article I was surprised Alaska DOW wasn’t after him.


16 posted on 09/02/2009 10:47:19 AM PDT by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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To: Billthedrill

No doubt in my mind you’re right.


17 posted on 09/02/2009 10:49:02 AM PDT by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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To: Manic_Episode

There was recently a woman killed by black bears in CO because she wouldn’t stop feeding them.

Shortly before that a woman in OR was prosecuted for feeding black bears and found guilty.

It’s sad when anyone feeds wildlife.


18 posted on 09/02/2009 10:53:18 AM PDT by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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To: jazusamo

The enemedia at work.

Protecting the guilty.

http://www.adn.com/bear-man/v-gallery/story/806485.html?/1521/gallery/806486-a806483-t3.html


19 posted on 09/02/2009 10:54:16 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: jazusamo

According to the movie made of him, Treadwell lasted 12 summers with the bears. On the unlucky 13th year he made the mistake of returning to bear country in the fall.


20 posted on 09/02/2009 10:55:48 AM PDT by decimon
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