The Grizzly

When Mark, the father David scarcely knows, arrives to take him on a weekend fishing trip, the eleven-year-old David is tense and nervous. His parents had separated, and David is afraid that his rugged, outdoorsman father will be putting him to the test he cannot meet. Other kids had fathers around, but he had only vague memories of his father leaving him to work in the oil fields halfway around the world.

David felt uneasy and alone as he drove with his father to Trapper’s Creek as the two head into the wilderness. Mark drove deep into a seldom-used valley, and there they were the only humans about for miles. Once settled in their camping spot what David thinks, fishing is something much different than how his dad fishes. His Dad was a Fly-fisherman, and never used worms like David intended to find and use.

David has a feeling they are not alone in the valley, that there is another man or something lurking and even stealing from their camp. David is unnerved to be out and away from civilization. For the first time, he sees his dad is not what his imagination had remembered.

The weekend proves to be a turning point for both father and son. The intrusion of a giant mother grizzly, which chases David up into a tree, turns on Mark and injures him, eats their provisions, and finally puts their pickup truck out of commission. This forces David to take charge. But can he get himself and his injured father out of the forest in time?

David finds resources in himself he never dreamed he had, and in taking care of his injured father, he overcomes his fear of him. By the time Mark is on his feet, the truck repaired, and they are on their way home, the two are closer than they had ever been. And there’s hope that David, his mother, and father can become a family again, and as it ends Mark comes home to stay.