Bear Encounter
Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 12:45 pm
I just returned from a trip to Sphinx Lakes in King's Canyon. I'll try to post a more thorough report with pics when I get a chance, but I wanted to recount this very strange (and frightening) bear encounter I had.
At the time, my head was somewhat groggy from a 3AM wake up call followed by a 5 hr drive to start my trip hiking in the rain. Walking along near the near the Bubbs Creek/Paradise Valley trail junction, I saw a bear in a meadow off to the right. I coughed and made noise as I always do to let it know I was there, it saw me, but paid no attention. So I took off my pack and pulled out my camera. Got some photos and I followed alongside it back down the trail about 100 ft. Then I stopped just to watch as it started toward the trail, crossed the trail about 40 feet behind me, kind of stared me down, then stood up on its hind legs and started scratching a tree (I recalled at the time this is some sort of territorial behavior when they do this). This was when I saw a little cub run up behind it. Crap...I slowly started to back away from them to my pack, walking backwards and snapping off a few photos. For some reason the cub somehow took a liking to me. It slowly approached, and all the hooting, yelling, and slapping my hiking poles together didn't detour it (mamma bear had drifted out of site off the trail by this time). So I thought I'd try to put some space between it and me and maybe it would cease and stay close to mama, so I started to go faster back to my pack. Then the cub started charging me! Holy &*^%! I slowed trying to make as much noise as I could, which slowed it a tad but by now it was 15 feet and closing fast. So, I went to my last resort and started pelting it with anything I could find on the ground, branches, dirt, and finally I pelted it with a small rock. That got its attention and by now momma had drifted back to see what happened to junior. Great. Luckily, momma came back, gave junior a look like "what the hell are you doing"...and they both slowly walked up off the trail and out of sight while I was left looking for my toilet paper to clean up the mess I left.
Now I've had too many bear encounters to count, from being face to face with one to watching one fish in a nearby stream, but never anything like this. I still feel bad about tagging it with a rock, but did I have an alternative? Could this encounter have been prevented (other than not stopping to photograph it)? I could not imagine if this were an adult 5 times the size charging me to try and get my food (which I have heard sporadically happens in some trouble spots with trouble bears), but I always hear "never get between a mother bear and its cub"...and while I wasn't between them once junior backed off, I thought I'd have to deal with momma.
I did report this incident to the Visitors Center at the end of my trip on the way out of the park (but it seems as always when I go there to report on conditions, etc... with all due respect to those that work there, was met with indifference).
Junior spotting me and thinking I was its next toy:
At the time, my head was somewhat groggy from a 3AM wake up call followed by a 5 hr drive to start my trip hiking in the rain. Walking along near the near the Bubbs Creek/Paradise Valley trail junction, I saw a bear in a meadow off to the right. I coughed and made noise as I always do to let it know I was there, it saw me, but paid no attention. So I took off my pack and pulled out my camera. Got some photos and I followed alongside it back down the trail about 100 ft. Then I stopped just to watch as it started toward the trail, crossed the trail about 40 feet behind me, kind of stared me down, then stood up on its hind legs and started scratching a tree (I recalled at the time this is some sort of territorial behavior when they do this). This was when I saw a little cub run up behind it. Crap...I slowly started to back away from them to my pack, walking backwards and snapping off a few photos. For some reason the cub somehow took a liking to me. It slowly approached, and all the hooting, yelling, and slapping my hiking poles together didn't detour it (mamma bear had drifted out of site off the trail by this time). So I thought I'd try to put some space between it and me and maybe it would cease and stay close to mama, so I started to go faster back to my pack. Then the cub started charging me! Holy &*^%! I slowed trying to make as much noise as I could, which slowed it a tad but by now it was 15 feet and closing fast. So, I went to my last resort and started pelting it with anything I could find on the ground, branches, dirt, and finally I pelted it with a small rock. That got its attention and by now momma had drifted back to see what happened to junior. Great. Luckily, momma came back, gave junior a look like "what the hell are you doing"...and they both slowly walked up off the trail and out of sight while I was left looking for my toilet paper to clean up the mess I left.
Now I've had too many bear encounters to count, from being face to face with one to watching one fish in a nearby stream, but never anything like this. I still feel bad about tagging it with a rock, but did I have an alternative? Could this encounter have been prevented (other than not stopping to photograph it)? I could not imagine if this were an adult 5 times the size charging me to try and get my food (which I have heard sporadically happens in some trouble spots with trouble bears), but I always hear "never get between a mother bear and its cub"...and while I wasn't between them once junior backed off, I thought I'd have to deal with momma.
I did report this incident to the Visitors Center at the end of my trip on the way out of the park (but it seems as always when I go there to report on conditions, etc... with all due respect to those that work there, was met with indifference).
Junior spotting me and thinking I was its next toy: