I've got lots of pictures from this hike and I promise to share them tomorrow (Like it or not, lol!), but I wanted to start with a story and this one special picture.....
This is a 5.5 mile loop hike and we had probably completed a little over 4 of those miles when we rounded a curve in the trail to see this bear. When we first saw the bear she was on the trail, but facing off to the side. I'm not sure if she just sensed us or smelled us or heard the four letters words we uttered upon seeing her. But, either way, she turned and saw us and started coming toward us.
She wasn't in a hurry or coming toward us in a threatening way, but she was coming toward us!
We know all the rules! You don't turn your back on the bear. You back away slowly and make lots of noise.
Of course, I had to snap a picture as I backed away! OCG decided to make noise (as he backed away way faster than I did) by yelling for me to hurry the @#$% up! LOL!
I really wish I had more pictures, but for some strange reason I wasn't able to hold the camera very steady at this point. LOL!
Anyway, I snapped this one and continued to walk backwards as the bear continued to walk towards us and OCG continued to yell like it was all my fault.
Knowing you are supposed to make a lot of noise is fine, but knowing what to yell is a whole other thing. I wasn't sure what to yell, so I just started yelling dog commands at the bear.
STOP! STAY! SIT!
Apparently, this bear wasn't house trained because he didn't listen.
It wasn't long before the bear decided that I was probably crazy and not worth her time and she just stopped on the trail and stared at me like, "I don't know why you don't like me! I just wanted to be your friend!"
I continued backward until I literally bumped into OCG and screamed becasuse.....BEAR! I then continued to yell dog commands at the bear until we rounded a curve and could no longer see the bear.
At that point we took off.....FAST and rehiked the four plus miles we had already hiked because we weren't interested in sharing the trail with that bear.....or that bear wasn't willing to share with us.....I'm not really sure.
On a plus side, those last four miles were the fastest I've ever hiked! LOL!
Now, I want to move on to something really amazing! The bear happened and I'm over it now. Want to know what I'm not over yet?
The face in that tree trunk! Seriously, look at it!
I was so focused on the bear that I didn't even notice the face on the tree until after we got back to the hotel and started looking at the pictures. How could I have missed this?
It's so creepy! I love it!
