We ran into a mama bear and her two cubs on our hike in the mountains yesterday. My husband yelped, “Bear!”
I was in the lead. “Where?”
“Right there, in the bushes.”
Her brown snout, surrounded by black, poked through the leaves. We backed up slowly and sat on two boulders by a trickling creek about 20 feet away. I pulled out my phone and consulted the Internet on what to do when encountering a bear on the trail. I’d read such articles a dozen times, but still, I felt unsure of what to do next.
I often feel unsure about what to do next in life when I sense danger lurking ahead, real or imagined. In this case, we didn’t know how dangerous the situation was. A mama bear will be protective of her cubs. She instructed them to scurry up the tree, and there the two little darlings went. But soon, they came back down. We waited ten minutes. My husband advanced to see if mama bear had moved on. There she was in the same spot, and the two cubs went back up the tree.
The instructions on the Internet were mildly helpful. It said, ‘Don’t make loud noises. Wave your arms slowly. Speak in a low calm voice to assure the bear you don’t mean any harm.’ Well, our two dogs were with us. They bark. On the one hand, they might defend us and scare the bear away if she rushed at us. On the other hand, if we tried to sneak past her and the dogs picked up her scent and snarled, would she attack us from behind?
We waited for another ten minutes when along comes an elderly man with his hiking stick. He didn’t see the bear and walked right past her without a problem. My dog bit him when he held out his hand to greet her. Geez.
It’s good to be cautious when you encounter possible peril. It’s wise to pause and think about the best way to proceed.
We decided to chance it or we could be there until the bear moved and it showed no signs of doing so. The dogs were quiet. So was the bear. That’s the last we saw of it.
Two young women approached us with their yappy dog. “Watch out for the bear and her cubs up ahead,” we warned. The women were excited. I would have been, too, not long ago, but this was my fourth bear encounter. They are big and real and wild and, yes, possibly dangerous. It’s good to be cautious when you encounter possible peril. It’s wise to pause and think about the best way to proceed.
The old hiker walking alone without a care simply enjoying the day was a signal to us that the bear was probably as afraid of us as we were of it, and wanted no trouble.
No one was hurt, not bear, humans, or dogs, so how we handled it worked out fine. There’s no one way to react to hazard. Each situation merits its own approach. Ours in this situation worked just fine.
I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. --Psalm 4