"One day I was following a hillside trail in Canada's Jasper National Park when I spotted a great blue heron fishing in a shallow mountain pool. Here was a subject for photography! Camera in hand, I crept quietly through the trees and brush to reach a good vantage point and snapped a couple of photos. I then stepped out onto the muddy riverbank . . . and looked down directly at the big, fresh unmistakeable tracks of a grizzly bear!

"Those footprints in the mud are the closest I've ever come to a grizzly bear. What if I'd met him while stealing through the underbrush! I hope that the first one I see will be happily sleeping off a giant meal, on a hillside of wildflowers, about 300 yards from where I'll excitedly be taking pictures."