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I am always reminded of the King King movies where the blonde-captured offering, lashed to poles, listens as something comes thrashing and crashing through the jungle toward her. In one sense, at least in theory, you have time to prepare yourself mentally and ready your weapon if the situation demands it. On the other hand, all that time provides the opportunity for a fertile imagination to start playing games with you. No doubt your scenario was very intimidating and human nature is far more often flight than fight, especially when you're opponent has incalculable mass, strength, and speed on its size. I always carry my 454 Casull when I go out and I'm sure in your situation I'd be lamenting not having a 45-70 with me because loaded for bear just isn't good enough.

My first BF encounter was full of bumbles. Turned on my digital recorder then pushed the record button again turning it off record. The BF sounded like a T rex coming through the woods right for me. I stood right in the middle of a trail and it either saw me or smelled me before i saw it. I was wearing a bright pink shirt. I should have ducked behind a tree. I had plenty of time. I finally got the recorder recording but after all the sound had stopped. Only thing I recorded was me breathing like I had just run 300 yards. Yes I was excited and more scared than I thought i was at the time. I would expect any shooting I would have done would have been pretty wild. But the sound of that BF crashing through the woods pretty much told me that a 357 was not nearly enough gun for a BF so I did not get it out. I thought I was pretty cool in the woods after that and other encounters until that cougar jumped right in front of me 15 or 20 yards away. Forgot to turn on the gopro camera, semi forgot the gun until it started to walk off, then even though it had walked off out of sight afraid it would chase me on my mountain bike. I kept turning around and looking back as I went the opposite direction. I should at least have drawn the weapon until the cougar decided what it was going to do. It stood and stared at me for about 10 to 15 seconds then just turned and walked of like it had no concerns about me. It did not even look back. So I seem to botch the first of each type of experience. I do not know how recent things have to be either. In aviation you practice emergencies once a year so you do not mess up when you get the real thing. Perhaps those that carry should do drills to practice what they would do with a charging bear or BF? The recorder thing is best handled by pack mounting the recorder and leave it recording the entire time you are in the field. No fumbling. The Gopro did not have the battery life to leave it running.

Have we mastered it? Can we survive and thrive naked and without tools, in almost any part of the world? They've mastered this planet. Most of the development you're talking about in humans isn't a result of evolutionary processes anyway, at least not in the sense you mean, biological evolution. We found another tier in evolutionary hierarchy, evolution of ideas through cultural transmission, but that doesn't have as much to do with our thinking abilities as you imagine. If we ever became isolated from that accumulation of knowledge, it wouldn't take long to erase all that progress. Evolution is not a linear process that takes species from "primitive" to some degree of "evolved" and 'stops' and drops them off somewhere along the way. The division we perceive between 'man' and 'animal' is not a blurred line, it's an imaginary line. That's the realization that's going to bring about this change you hope for in humanity, but I'm afraid that realization will remain elusive even after sasquatch is proven and accepted. (Don't get me wrong, we of course have mastered the planet, in the way you mean. I just want to point out that they have too, in their way, and make the point that we are not at two different points on the same evolutionary path, but rather that we're on two divergent paths)

That depends on where you're at. We broke 2 record highs this week. A town 100 miles north of me crushed their record by 9 degrees. The old record was 62, the new one, 71. Saturday I was hiking at 3700 feet where there should have been a foot or two of snow ... none. Sunday, I was at 5100 feet where it would normally be waist deep ... none, bare ground. Monday I was fishing in a creek at 3500 feet that normally should be bank full and muddy ... low, clear, green water ... and where there should be 18 inches of snow, none. So while the east is getting whacked, parts of the west are experiencing one of the warmest winters on record ... so far. The pattern is changing, at least in the short run, to something more normal for us. Looking at the long term seasonal forecasts from NOAA, we should expect normal precip and temp for 2-3 months, then it is supposed to get warmer and drier than average through the 14 month forecast. The point is .. where you're at, absolutely, the winter presents seemingly unique opportunities, but those opportunities do not translate to similar opportunities elsewhere across the continent. MIB

MindSquatch, get thee to the Paranormal Section. You'll be a rock star, there.