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Nineteen forty-six, first day of October, on the upper end of Long Sunset Bay, the fisher trapper Tanner Link was found dead. Five deep scars across his right cheek, an autopsy showed not another mark or bruise on his entire body.
Seventeen miles as the crow flies due east, and four years to the day, snowshoeing, cruising an upcoming timber sale, Freddy Nell was found, dead, same scars. Doc Altier saved skin samples from both of the deceased, analyzing them many times, in his personal medical journals he noted both men were alive when scarred, and Doc felt according to his hypothesizing notes, they died of heart attack-like conditions, without any of the typically associated ailments in either man’s bodies. Two able-bodied men, in good health. It made no sense. A medical mystery to be sure that doc died never solving.
Fast forward, 1987, January seventh, King Fisher Knob east of Algonquin Park, a fifth-year ranger, found, one cross-country ski still on, the other lying next to him, face scars, died sometime the day prior as he didn’t return, next day, they set out looking for him, it was a shock and a grim find.
Ledger-Maple Hospital did the autopsy, and one set of physicians had heard the tales of the so-called spirit bear, got a hold of ol Doc Altier’s ledgers, reading his thoughts, located the skin samples. DNA testing results on all three deceased, showed one hundred percent same results from all three dead men. One thing, bear or no bear, killed all three men.
Heath Lounsend was sugar bushing in late March, 1997. It was a massive maple ridge on the north shore of Seven Rivers Lake, spring thawing, refreezing, melting, not much snow left on the ground but a few crusty patches. It was a foggy, heavily overcasted misty morning, he pushed through a dark stand of mixed spruce and balsam leaned down to look over a massive amount of moose droppings. Thought he heard scrunching in the snow by him, when he felt a heavy gust of wind sweep past his head, he turned instantly toward the felt movement and in the misted view said he thought what looked like a smokey gray-colored behemoth of a bear silhouette, almost evaporating before his very eyes. Might be the only person to have survived a possible encounter with the breath of the spirit bear.
- The Trout Whisperer
