I made an attempt to participate in one of these a month or so back when our youngest yanked me off the path up from Union Dam on the Patapsco. Fortunately I was able to keep from rolling all the way down the hill, and the snapping sound turned out not to be my glasses. BUt I now have a nice scar by my left eye.

I have to ask, because someone must - what was the bear doing in your freezer? (Blame Groucho.)

Clifton, ever since Jim typed that line at me, I've been trying to figure it out: How did a small tough French-Canadian EMS from the White Mountains come to shoot a bear in my freezer?

He was very tidy about it. All that was left when he was done was some bear meat wrapped up in white butcher paper.

Always good to know what the people around ML are doing for their summer vacations, yes indeed.

Thank you, Jim.

I love Flickr. Here we are looking down at the watercourse from a section of the hiking trail. The distance isn't great enough, but the adjacent photostream gives you a good idea of the local terrain.

*doffs hat respectfully*

He'd tracked it for months; through verdant forest, over jagged cliffs, across the asphalt jungle. In the final moments, the bear sign all along Flatbush (forgive me, I can't remember where exactly you guys live) lead him to a cold, metallic cave where the ursid was snacking on Gorton's Fillets and making a terrible mess.

Something like that, I think.

What does bear taste like?

And does it depend, as C.S. Lewis says, on what it has been eating recently?

Jo #8: The taste of all meat is affected by what the animal has been eating. There is a difference between grass-fed and grain-fed cattle, for example, and not just because grass-fed is leaner.

I've no idea what bear tastes like.

I suppose you could tell where you are by what bear tastes like. Seal? You're in the arctic (and the bear is white). Slapped salmon? You're in the Northwest. Pic-a-nic basket? Jellystone Park.

Here in the UK, most rescue services are full-time professionals. Some Doctors do extra training to provide back-up at road accidents and the like.

The two big volunteer groups are the RNLI, who do have a few full-time lifeboat crews, and Mountain Rescue teams. The Mountain Rescue teams in some places do have RAF involvement. It.s the Mountain Rescue teams who would be most familiar with that sort of operation

In at least one place, when the RNLI decided there was no longer any need for a lifeboat to be based there, went and bought their own.

And sometimes these rescues have involved a bright yellow helicopter flown by a Prince. Put that in a book and they'd never believe you.

Dave Bell: In the USA, if you get lost out West, your rescuer could turn out to be Harrison Ford.

IIRC, he's a member of the Civil Air Patrol out there.

Regarding AP 'lifting' stories: The AP is a non-profit co-op and part of the agreement is that subscribers allow AP to copy and rewrite. The rewrite is copyright protected, just as is the original story. In recent years, AP has often, but not always, credited the original reporter(s) in its long-form rewrites. You seldom see credits of any sort on short pieces.

Walter: I know. I'm out of charity with the AP on account of their absurd rights grab a while back, and their inexplicable attempt to ban rewrites.

Not to get all sidetracked, here, but... The 'inexplicable' is explained easily by the desire of AP and its members to keep the copy in the family. There were far too many cut-and-paste things going on the internet, leaving member papers w/o eyeballs. AP has never allowed non-members to copy or rewrite. As for the 'rights grab,' Indefensible, but understandable for a panicked organization..

Very impressive job all around, and lucky for Ms. Tate that we have people like that willing and ready to do things like that.

It struck me as odd, though, that an EMS responder would give out, and a news outlet would subsequently publish, the victim's date of birth. Is that common practice, or just a slip-up by someone more used to reporting to the receiving hospital than to the media?

The gentleman who gave the patient's name and date of birth on-air was a Fish and Game officer, not an EMT or firefighter.

Jo Walton: What does bear taste like?

There's still time enough this year to see for yourself...

Jim: sorry, I'd missed that. That makes him a form of law enforcement, right? I'd still expect more awareness of privacy concerns from a law enforcement officer. I'm not outraged, or anything, just mildly surprised.

Jeremy, he's a law enforcement officer who talks to hospitals a lot more often than he talks to the press.

I have eaten bear. There was a time when I was married to a man whose father was a hunter of pretty much everything, and had the meat cut and wrapped for distribution to family members.

I don't even remember what it tasted like. All I remember is how it stuck to the roof of my mouth. And stuck. And stuck. I recalled that our pioneer forefathers used bear grease as axle grease, and I understood why.

I wouldn't do it again.

Older: All I remember is how it stuck to the roof of my mouth. And stuck. And stuck. I recalled that our pioneer forefathers used bear grease as axle grease, and I understood why.

From what I've been told, that's the reason McCleary does stew: to cut the grease.

Jo Walton @8. It does depend on what the bear's been eating. I've had bear once, at a game feed. It was clearly both omnivorous and male, as it had boar taint worse than the wild boar I'd eaten at another game feed. Because of that once, I'd rather not eat it again, unless it were a young bear. This one was a bear from Alaska, and fish had clearly been a prominent part of its diet at some time or other. Just as pork fed more than just grass sometimes has a strong sweet taste, so did the bear, but the fish, other stuff, and boar taint really made it not to my taste. "Gamy" can be anything from grass-fed elk to squirrel to raccoon. The bear was just out there. Perhaps a bear that did nuts and grubs and moths would be less so.

More scene photos from the Colebrook Chronicle.

Good to hear that people like these are on the job. I wish they had been present a couple weeks back when I went for a doctor's appointment at the professional building next door to the local hospital. As I finished crossing the parking lot, I heard this *splat* up ahead, and saw that a woman had done a faceplant on the sidewalk next to the building. A couple ran up and the man asked if she was all right, and the woman ran off to get help. Well, she wasn't all right--couldn't talk clearly, couldn't get up, and then I saw that she was bleeding from her nose. The man called 911. Well, in the 10 minutes I was there, 911 didn't show up. And neither did a bunch of medics with stretchers, only a nurse with some towels, who said she couldn't find a wheelchair. I could not do anything but stand there and say that help was on the way, which I probably couldn't make very convincing. And we were right next door to the hospital.
The prof. bldg. was not well marked/numbered, and I don't think any of us patients had its full name memorized. After the nurse came with the towels I figured I was not needed, so went on my way.
I guess the situation was taken care of when I was done, I didn't check, but when I came back next week for another appointment, there was still a spot on the sidewalk.
I didn't have a cellphone, and I just might go and get one after that, but I wonder how many besides me have trouble naming all the buildings and streets we see every day, let alone occasionally, phone or no phone. I thought 911 could zero in on cell phones but I guess not all phones have that capability.
I guess if I am out and start feeling unwell I should just head for a ravine...

RE: Angiportus' story: We were on our way back to Berkeley from a friend's place in Sunnyvale, California, when the !Check Engine! light came on. That had never happened before, so I got alarmed, pulled off the Lawrence Expressway, and called AAA.

The operator asked what town we were in. We couldn't answer. We'd been crossing the city limits of San Jose, Sunnyvale, I think Mountain View, and probably into some parts of unincorporated Santa Clara County all day, and the expressway meanders through some parts of Idunno how many of those, and they're all pretty much indistinguishable, just Silicon Valley sprawl as far as I can tell.

Made for some confused conversation, of course further confounded by patchy cellphone signal and call-center background noise. The call center was most likely nowhere near Northern California.

(Fortunately, AAA took better care of us than whoever was supposed to be on the job in Angiportus' town, and the problem was probably just a not-tight-enough gas cap. The nice young man in the big yellow truck was able to find us by street and strip-mall restaurant names.)

I still don't know for sure where we were, technically.

#13 Walter

AP claimed they were going to provide guidelines about allowable quoting. AP apparently has failed to do so. I am underwhelmed.

If it is allowed, an update on the hiker's condition would be welcome.

Post 26 put me in mind of the terrible Hillsborough Football stadium disaster in the UK.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7992845.stmst.

It's not mentioned in my link and my google skills have failed me in finding a cite but significant delay was caused by the then practice of the emergency services. They had recently changed to a national call centre and are heard repeatedly asking for the address from someone who only knows they are at "Hillsbrough football ground" and has no idea of the street name, let alone the address (it was an important quarter final and neither of the teams playing were local). You will see in the news report that the police were unaware of what was happeneing at the time the first emegeency calls were being made.

Correct link in # 29 seems to be here.

We'll probably never know how the young lady made out, unless we read it in the paper or she visits in person to tell us.

One of the hard parts of EMS is that you care intensely about a person for ten minutes, an hour, a day ... and never find out afterward what the ultimate outcome was.

Jim I've been reading this chat and as a nurse I can understand the wonder of outcomes.....

1 broken neck, 1 concussion, 1 broken arm, 1 broken spleen, 1 messed up knee and numerous bumps, bruises and cuts. 6-8 weeks in a cervical collar and cast.

But I am here, fortunate to be alive, home and walking and its all thanks to the many individuals that responded to the trail that day. I hope to send out formal letters once I am able to write, but please send my love and appreciation to all involved. Its hard to find the words to say thank you. The collaboration and efforts of the teams saved my life. There are no words to describe my gratitude--all I can say is thank you!

Jen

Jen, it's so wonderful to hear from you. When the call went out I honestly thought it was going to be a recovery operation rather than a rescue.

Thanks for hanging in there. You're pretty special.

I'll pass this along to the squad.

On the question of what bear tastes like -- New Hampshire bears, at least, taste really good. Of course, they're black bears, not grizzlies, and their diet is mostly in the roots-and-grubs range, which may make a difference, as may the skill of the hunter who kills the bear and of the butcher who takes it through the transition from a whole animal to a lot of meat in little paper packages.

The rule of thumb, as I understand it, is to treat bear meat as though it were pork, and pork of the old school (when the lard was as important a product as the meat) at that. Bear meat makes good sausage, and chili, and meatloaf.

Pork of the old school, as in "back when US pork was a serious carrier of trichinosis." Pork isn't, anymore, but I understand bears still can carry it in the wild.

Jennifer Tate @32: Thanks for letting us all know! Best wishes for a full recovery.

Xopher@35: Pork of the old school, as in "back when US pork was a serious carrier of trichinosis." Pork isn't, anymore, but I understand bears still can carry it in the wild.

That, too. Bears, like pigs, are by nature omnivores, with all the problems that implies. (The lean, trichinosis-free pigs of the current day are mostly the product of industrial hog farming, which comes with its own set of problems.)

Ms. Tate herself, on WMUR.

With video.

It's been reported that the vertebra she broke was C-2.

It was C2 Jim--anterior with minimal displacement. Someone was on my side that day including a really good crew that maintained cervical cautions even while lifting me up a cliff :)

Jen! Good to see you back. It's been about eight weeks since your fall ... collar coming off soon? Brian was the person who stayed with you all the way up the cliff. He's a volunteer with Beecher Falls on their high-angle team, and a part-time EMT with the 45th. I'll tell him that you said hi.

If you're ever back up this way, drop by the station. We have coffee 24 hours a day.

And, I hope you find other things to delight you at Making Light. It's a friendly blog.