so it was one thing to be driving in a popular national park with two other friends and seeing a bear cross the road in front of us, but yesterday was a whole different animal (pun intended!). yesterday, i was completely alone, 3 miles from my car on a remote-ish trail still covered in slush and snow and about to take bite #2 from a peanut butter sandwich, when a huge, black ball of fur appeared out of nowhere within 10 feet in front of me. my first encounter with an alaskan bear. i was instantly torn between childish delight, scientific fascination, and utter terror, and OF COURSE, the very first thing i do was text "SHIT BEAR OMG" to JS. which didn't help because i was being quiet as a mouse and the bear was now walking leisurely towards my sandwich (in hindsight, if i HAD to be stupid, i should take a picture instead of texting someone 10 miles away, because at least then i would be able to post the picture in this entry).
luckily, my brain started working at this point, and not seeing any rocks to throw at the bear, i quickly put the food away, stood up to my full, intimidating 5-foot-1 figure and started to make as much noise as i could by rattling my car keys and talking shit to the bear. for a few seconds and against all my bear-encounter knowledge, i considered turning around and running (terrible response) as fast as i could back uphill, but thank god the pure logistics of running anywhere in 2 feet of slushy snow prevented me from giving in to my flight impulse. thank god, as well, that the bear must have heard my valiant attempt at being intimidating, and began to retreat -- but if there ever was a reluctant retreat, this bear got it down. it must have turned around to eye the invisible food five times on it's way out before it finally disappeared down the hill. so i'd avoided a confrontation with a hungry bear, but now i must follow its track down hill for 3 miles to get back to the car. i was told by phone to keep being loud while hiking by "singing a song or something," so i ended up giving the bear a free concert of all the Brandi Carlile songs I knew before running into a big group of hikers coming up who had not seen the bear. i felt much, much better.
i never did see that big, black ball of fur again and later that night, i found a big bouquet of roses waiting on the windshield of my car, so "all's well that ends well," no?
Man, I'm pretty sure I would have only freaked out. I did see a baby black bear when my family and I toured Denali National Park seven years ago, but we were in a crowd and there was a large gap between the rock we were standing on and the rock where the bear was eating.
ReplyDeleteAs for the flowers, that sounds rather interesting. I can't tell by the way you write it if it's from someone you know or not though...
You told the adventure in such an amusing tone that I could not stop laughing while imagining all your mental and physical reactions. I was amazed that you still had an instinct of scientific appreciation for a big intimidating bear that came out of blue. I can feel a young brave heart while your were walking back for 3 miles along the bear’s track! I wish I had been there enjoying the free concert you gave to the retreating bear in wild glaciers of Alaska!
ReplyDeleteHow scary!
ReplyDeleteGood job! Bear training ftw
ReplyDelete