Almost "ate by a grizz."

Today is bitter sweet, my son just left for the Army.  I decided to re-live an adventure we had near Henry's Lake Idaho. 
It all started near the Yellowstone border, we were hiking up a timbered area that was marked with grizzly warnings in the area we parked.  I told Stevo' that we would be completely safe and not to worry, although I have to admit I was a bit concerned but I wasn't going to tell him.  The Ol' Man and my buddy Fish were about a mile away walking the ridge.  We did have intermittent radio contact.  We were bow hunting elk and armed with bows, my pistol and Stevo's can of bear spray.
As we hiked up the hill we were walking about twenty yards from a patch of brush.  All of a sudden we heard a very low growl of some kind.  I did not recognize it and immediately thought, "Grizzly!"  I looked over at the brush and saw some movement.  I noticed that the movement appeared to be as high as I am tall.  "Big Grizzly!!!"  I hollered at Stevo to climb a tree as I drew my pistol.  He just as quickly drew his bear spray and ordered me to climb a tree.  Now he was only twelve years old and was quite a site standing their aiming his can of bear spray in the direction of this evil monster of the brush.  I told him again to climb the tree and that I would be fine.  He reminded me that I was scheduled for back surgery and that he would protect me, since it would take me a while to climb the tree. Now I'm not sure if he was referring to my ruptured disc or if he was making an old man joke, he never would tell me.  He looked very brave but I did notice some shaking and hesitation in his voice.  I on the other hand was so calm that I barely noticed the injuries I received from my knee's banging together.
While we were having this "conversation" I heard him try to alert the others over the radio.  He screamed something in the radio that sounded like, "Ughhh biggg hfssst uggaaa GRIZZLY."  I later learned that the others clearly heard GRIZZLY but could not make out what country the foreigner was that used the radio.
At some point during this fiasco of heroism the evil creature of the brush let out another bellow that was lower and meaner than the first.  I noticed a dark colored back moving in the brush.  I could see that it was at my eye level!!!  Stevo and I continued to argue over who was going to climb the tree; however it was getting harder to hear over all the screaming and hysterical screeching, I decided to stop screaming and hysterically screeching, haha. 
Then it happened, The beast started to come out.  "Oh Lord, here we go."  I prepared to stand my ground and protect my son, he was aiming his can and preparing to protect his crippled up dad.  Out the beast comes, hands shaking, heart pounding, palms getting sweaty and the beast.....snacking on a limb????
The beast ended up being one of the biggest Moose i had ever seen.  I was new to the sight of moose but had seen enough to qualify this as a "big one." 
Stevo and I laughed, hugged, changed some shorts and continued on with the hunt.  The one thing that I will never forget was his bravery against the "Beast of the bush."  The Army is getting one hell of a soldier.