Surprised this bear around this morning from about 40 feet away. We came up around a corner on the trail and there he was. We did not sense that the bear was there (thick tree cover) neither did he sense us and we were not quiet. When I first spotted the bear, I noted immediately how small he was and right away told my SO to be on the lookout for mama bear behind us while I kept eyes on him. After I had a better chance to size the bear up and got a full sense of our surroundings and the bear's action, I determined that this bear was probably in his first year alone without mama. (He is much smaller when viewed from the side.)

For us, we did not have much room to maneuver. The trail is to the right and winds down very sharply behind where we were standing here. We did manage to somewhat back away from the bear (about 10-12 feet) in order to give him some room, however the last thing we wanted to do was try walking further backwards then having one of us stumble/fall down the hill and that may of been enough to get the bear into attack/chase mode...

After a couple of growls, cooler heads prevailed (bear) and the standoff was over. The bear turned and eased his way up into the trees over his right shoulder. We immediately went back down the trail and left the area.

It should be noted that during this encounter (less then 2 minutes) we both had our bear sprays out at the ready. The picture was taken (one handed without bringing the camera to my eye) only after I had determined that he was no real threat (no head shaking, no snapping of the teeth, no ears pinned back).

This has not been my first close (nor most potentially dangerous) encounter with a bear, but this encounter today is still is a reminder that cool heads (both bear and human) is the only way to make an always fascinating encounter from becoming a potentially tragic one.

He looks like he's in good shape for a spring bear. Mama must have taught him well.

Sue

He did appear to be in good shape overall. His fur on the side is thin but not rubbed through/off like a lot of young bears usually are after hibernation this time of year (Still almost winter up north where this picture was taken.) The temperature at 5:30 am today was 4C which is about 48 F.

Wow. Nice job all the way round. Great picture.

FWIW bear encounters seem up on trails in the PNW this year, not sure where your encounter was. The news as usual is full of urban and suburban encounters, as if building houses out in the woods is any kind of news. I thought last year was a pretty good one for encounters on trails, I had at least 3 close encounters with bears where in an average year I have none or maybe one. Anyway, a good year for safe practices with food while hiking and teaching your kids how to hang a bear bag.