STREET BEAT: At 87, Sherando man still hunting bear

Hours before the mountains cast a shadow on the Sherando Grocery, a band of regulars assemble there for lunch.

Chatting over cheeseburgers and cherry colas, conversation turns to bear hunting. And through a panoramic window, they see 87-year-old Jesse Bridge walk up and step inside.

“He’ll be bear hunting in his grave,” said Lenard Balsey, a Sherando mechanic.

Sitting nearby, bushy-bearded David Patterson nods in agreement.

Bridge orders a hot dog and grabs a Mountain Dew, his drink of choice.

He lives four miles down Mount Torrey Road, alone, in a house on self-dubbed Wildlife View Circle.

In his life, Bridge has killed seven bears. He’s captured dozens and dozens more.

“I probably was 18 years old when I started bear hunting,” he said. “I coon hunted first, but I saw so many bears I decided to switch.”

The inventory of tools he uses is simple: dogs, a truck, “a little Mountain Dew and a Little Debbie cookie.”

“That’s all I need,” he said.

Most of the time, Bridge lets his dogs do the work. Driving into the mountains, he stays in his Ford F-150 truck. A back injury two years ago keeps him confined.

Only a few dogs from his team go with him each time. Choosing can be tough when the group includes Lucky, Luke II, Lady, Red Boy, and Missy.

He frees most of the bears he corners into tall mountain trees.

He’s never hunted bear for the meat. It’s too dark and black for him, he said.

“You get into the mountains with nature and all you hear is the dogs run,” Bridge mused. “You’re closer to God in the mountains.”

If living at the base of the mountain ridge wasn’t enough to remind him of hunting bear, his house and yard are strewn with them … figurines, pictures and stuffed animals, that is.

“People just give ‘em to me,” Bridge explained, laughing. “You’ll see a lot of bear pictures here.”

He’s lived on the property since before 1950. He still chops wood for fire and boasts about the 41 pounds of water pressure delivered to his home from a nearby mountain spring.

A minute walk from his back door, several dogs lay lazily in the sun.

They howl each time he comes home.