The Russian River is a place that gives the visitor a taste of the fear that prey can sense. Very early in the morning, as you walk along this stream bathed in morning mist and as the darkness subsides, a grizzly bear can loom from just anywhere. You realize that the only possible escape is along the river because, in some places, dense vegetation and steep slopes give one no other choice of escape. We can often see the paths created by the grizzlies that sink into the forest, like an arch carved by their shape in the vegetation. At the slightest sound the heart races!