I see a baby bear!

I went to a friend's cottage this weekend, and got a little nature therapy and a lesson in being bear safe.

I crossed paths with a baby black bear on my walk in the woods today. It took me a few seconds to process what I was seeing, and then I thought "Oh no! Where is, mama." I didn't see her, and the cub was 100 or so yards in front of me, heading perpendicular to my trail. I had been talking to my video camera for a while, so didn't think I'd scare mom. I yelled and spooked the cub. It took off at a run in the other direction, but I was still worried about mama. I backtracked on my trail, a couple hundred meters, to the nearest ,fire road and headed home, blowing my whistle as I went. Never did lay eyes on mama. We notified the neighbours to be cautious.

Phew! Not sure I did the right thing, but I did get outta there safely. So glad I had a whistle and a walking stick. I went minimal on the walk, taking only a whistle, folding knife, bandana and my camera. A ten minute walk from a cottage doesn't usually feel potentially life-threatening.

My inclination would be doing either exactly what you did, or alternatively -- given the distance, and moving perpendicular to your trail, and being in the opposite direction from safety -- silently turning around and departing.

It's not clear to me that the silent withdrawal would have been better.

Along the trail one day a few years ago, near Rocky Mountain Park in Colorado. Mommy was watching us closely, the cubs seemed oblivious. We certainly didn't go any closer - probably 50 yards away in this picture when we noticed what was on the stretch of trail below us. There was a second cub there, but I can't find him in this picture. At least I wasn't stupid enough to walk down there and try to take a selfie with the bears. You wouldn't believe how many idiots around here try to do that exact thing - with bears, moose, elk...

(I'm trying to attach the picture, but I'm not sure if that's going to work. The forums allow "attach file", but it's not showing up when I preview...)

Try keeping an eye out for bear feces as you walk. It's brown, and has whistles and little bells in it.

Smells peppery too.

WOW, Haertig, great pic! I have a hard time coming up with a more dangerous situation than getting caught between her and those cubs.

I love a good nature pic too, but safety first. Always. People can be so dumb! I was so glad I stopped and waited to be sure of what I was seeing before I kept heading down the trail. Who knows what I would have walked into. A scared skunk would have been bad enough.

LOL!!

If there's a cannister, you know it's a grizz.

A different approach: if you're a boxer, punch it in the nose. Myself, I would have put my money on the bear. But you never know. It worked this time. Maybe I need to spend some time on a heavy bag.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/nati...7971/story.html