Driving with my father and 10 year old son. So, this likely would be around 1984

 My father passed away around august 1985 so this is a special memory of my 10 year old son and I guess Dad would have been 68 then because he passed away at age 69.

We were driving my 1974 International Harvester Scout II 4 wheel drive then and it likely was the best 4 wheel drive if you actually want to push up to 2 or more feet of un-plowed snow and drive right through it. But, even then you have to watch out for the type of consistency of snow before you go barreling through it if you don't want to get stuck especially if the snow is on top of a remote dirt or rock road.

However, this was summer so no problem at all with snow even though we were likely driving at around 4000 feet which in winter would likely be under 4 plus feet of snow most of the time in the 1980s in the winter time then. Where my A-Frame was (within 20 miles of this place we are at) we regularly got about 7 feet of snow in Winter which is why I built an A-Frame so the roof wouldn't collapse if we weren't there when the snow came down that hard and built up to 7 feet or more. 

We were very remote here out past McCloud on 89 then north towards the mountain on dirt roads that run almost everywhere out in this area way out in the tulies so to speak and we were driving along the dirt road with likely no one there for 10 to 20 miles in the forest when we were startled by a Black Bear, a male and a pretty big one. 

He rose up on his hind legs to fight us because they are the apex predator here with nothing they can't handle. So, they are used to getting whatever they want in the wild and not taking no for an answer.

So, since I didn't want him to break out my front window or pull off one my my Car Doors I backed up a little. Also, I wanted to protect my son and my father from this and then I stopped to see the show. When he realized we were backing off he went down on all fours and walked back into the woods in the same direction he was heading before.

These are the kinds of amazing experiences in life that you usually cannot repeat and you remember forever out in the wilds of California or throughout the Western States or wherever bears are in likey 49 of the 50 states because I don't think wild bears live in Hawaii except maybe in a Zoo on Oahu or something?