So my wife and I were out walking our dog today in the little Western North Carolina mountain town where we have a family cabin. The gravel road runs along a creek. Anyway, the dog starts yanking towards the overgrowth beside the road and sniffing for all she’s worth. Minnie is an older one-eyed basenji mix, but that dog can still pull when she wants to. Well it seemed she wanted to sniff at two large bears right behind the heavy overgrowth bramble and small trees just to the right, between us and the creek. I probably would have walked right by without seeing them, but now I’ve got two startled large black bears only about 5 or 7 feet away from us. One appears to be rising up on its hind legs.
My wife is about 15 yards behind me but she and I both start yelling “BEAR” and “f**k!” because what else can you say?
I then encourage my wife to walk slowly backwards and I try to look big and drag the dog slowly but determinedly forwards. Fortunately the bears have no real interest in us. The one that I thought was rearing up was actually trying to shamble up a small tree and the other one just headed down to the creek. Whew!
After I slowly (DON’T RUN!) got to the little bridge over the stream my wife joined me having walked around a nearby home and then returning to the gravel road. We crossed the bridge to the other side in time to see both bears now heading upstream towards the wilderness area below Greybeard Mountain.
Then, just a few minutes later, a group of folks walking down from the road we were on appeared. They excitedly talked about the FIVE bears they had just seen heading up the creek upstream from us. So I guess there were more bruins in that overgrowth than we realized. We broke up a black bear party.
Scary. There’s so much differing advice about how to handle a situation like that, that I don’t know what I’d do. Back away slowly? Look big? Play dead? Run away faster than your friends? I’d probably just freeze.
Good article, John_DiFool. We know there are bears in our area and I always carry my phone with the thought of getting pictures should we see one. But when the encounter happened today, pulling out my Samsung, keying the password, and taking photos was not something that crossed my mind. Too close! Just get some separation and hope the bears have better things to do then charge us.
We had a couple bear encounters on a recent visit to Asheville, NC, including a mama bear and her two cubs in a cemetery there. Unnerving, but as long as you leave them be they tend to extend you the same courtesy.
Not sure the efficacy of a bear bell? It’s de regueur in Japan, where the Hokkaido Ussiri bears roam (somewhat smaller than a Griz, and more skittish like a US black bear), ta have a bear bell. In theory, at least, bears don’t like the ringing sound of metal, and announces way in advance of a face to face encounter that company is coming.
I’ve had one ever since I backpacked in Hokkaido in the late 80’s. I also carry bear spray. Probably more for someone going mental than an actual bear encounter, but the one time this summer I didn’t carry bear spray, ran into a black bear sow and cub on the wonderland trail at Mt Rainier. Vowed never again to try cut that 14oz in weight.
barbaric, but the poor dog becomes a sacrificial anode - keep the bears attentions long enough for you and the mrs to get away. I would never actually do this, but it is an option if it comes down to bears insisting on snacktime.
you are very lucky that you both had a heck of an encounter and kept your heads to get away.
The number of bear human encounters has increased in this area over the past few years. I wonder if the bears are getting too used to humans?
Right now we are in that special time of the year where the fall leaf crowds have yet to descend and the summer vacation hordes are mostly gone. Many of the cottages are empty right now, and a lot of the full time residents who are here are still at work at 4 o’clock in the afternoon (when we met the bears).
It’s a great time to be in the mountains because for this brief period the weather is not too cold and the streets and paths are much less travelled. Up the road is a campground area that gets a lot of people in the summer but is likely empty mid-week now. Forty-one degrees last night. Low sixties today. A perfect time to be in the town of Montreat for solitude and weather. And with acorns falling I understand it is also a ripe time to see bears.
We will be more cautious but my family has been coming here for many years and while I have seen lots of bear scat around and others in the family have reported bears, these were my first direct encounter here.
@Biotop, glad that things worked out safely for all concerned. Black bears are typically not as aggressive and hence not as dangerous as brown bears (aka “grizzlies”) but AIUI colorations do vary, and after all, a bear is a bear, and always a potential danger.
In a previous post, I recounted my own close encounter with a Mama bear and two cubs . Sadly, it did not end well for Mama but the two cubs were found and relocated well north of the populated areas of the park. As mentioned in that post, although we were somewhat concerned for our safety, it was nothing compared to what happened to the couple camping on the other side of the bay, who were apparently not accustomed to basic camping practices and had Mama and her cubs actually invade their tent!
We get Black bears too. But that’s a bit too close for comfort.
I keep trash in my shed. I take it to the dump every two weeks, we don’t have trash service. My shed door has been ripped off twice. What I have started to do is spread moth balls on the steps to the shed. That seems to deter them pretty well.
Bears have also broken into our cars a number of times. We have been advised to not lock our cars since they will just rip the door handles off. Yep, they just open the doors and get in. Pretty scary when you see your car doors open, but can’t get a good look inside without approaching the car. In that situation, I’ll stay on my deck and fire a .357 mag into the ground and look for any movement/rocking of the car. The noise should startle them.
Luckily, except for a few scratches, the bears have not damaged our cars. They do leave big muddy footprints though.
Sidebar: you can add the camera icon to the lock screen, so you can quickly swipe the camera icon and get to the camera without needing to unlock the phone with a password. It lets you take pictures and video like normal, but requires the password to do anything else. I use the camera all the time this way, and would have tried it for the encounter you report. Just FYI.
I am one of those older guys who learns how to do just enough with his cell phone to get by. I always figure that one day I am going to explore all the amazing features of this modern device. But somehow that day never comes. We have no kids so my wife and I do not have young folks to come around and patiently explain.
