Was out for my usual 10 - 15 km hike up into the mountains along old logging roads. Came around a blind corner and there was the bear, about 30 feet in front of me, moseying along heading in the same direction I was. I stopped and watched him for a few seconds then he stood up smelling the air, turned around and saw me and freaked out. He turned and ran right towards me making me scream “You’re running the wrong way!!!”. But he just wanted to dash into a trail that happened to be in between us. I heard him crashing around in the forest as he ran away. I walked past the trail with my airhorn ready and kept calling out to him, letting him know where I was but he was long gone. Then the adrenaline kicked in and boy, was I shaking!
He was a big, lovely bear with a glossy black coat.
Yeah, scary but cool, at least in retrospect. Will make a good story for years to come.
My black bear story— I used to hike a lot in Michigan’s U.P. On a hike in Porcupine Mountains State Park my friend and I were taking a lunch break on the side of the trail next to Mirror Lake when we saw a black bear come ambling down the trail. He saw us and started walking right toward us. I thought he smelled our food so I dropped my beef jerky and trail mix and we started backing up, with our backs to the lake. He walked right past the food and kept coming up to us. He was within a few feet of us and we were about to be swimming if we backed up any more, when he finally got tired of us, turned around, and disappeared into the woods.
It was only when he was almost gone when I suddenly remembered I had a camera on a strap around my neck (this was before ubiquitous cellphones). I just managed to get a shot of a blurry dark shape among the trees
When I first saw him my hand slowly went to my phone to try to get a photo but before I even had it out of my pocket, he stood up and saw me. As he turned and ran straight at me I remember thinking “ok so this is happening”.
I hike frequently over the summers in the high Sierra, and only rarely encounter a bear. One time years ago I was doing a short hike to the top of a waterfall with my family (2 adults, 2 kids around 8-10 years old, and a dog). As we were walking along a narrow trail thru overgrown young trees, amongst a bunch of downed logs, the dog started acting a little weird. We eventually stopped and looked back along the trail behind us to see a decent-sized cinnamon black bear waving it’s nose in the air at us, about 50 feet away, evidently sniffing to see what was up. I think the scent of our dog turned him/her off and while we fumbled to get a camera out it was gone. Of course, my wife and I had to remain calm for the kids, but I know after discussing it later she was pretty freaked out.
I realize this was probably a fear reflex without though but just for general awareness it is a bad policy to give food for bears. Black bears are very rarely aggressive (about 2 in a million displays predatory behavior toward people, most will actively avoid people) but once they learn that people or campsites can be a source of food their natural curiosity and desire for any easy meal will trump their natural recalcitrance, and thoughtless people will even deliberately lure them over to take a picture, then when the bear finds itself far too close for comfort it will make a defensive swipe at the person to try to get distance. These are rarely more than scratches but black bears do have sharp claws for climbing and can leave some consequential gashes on bear skin or get snagged on thick clothing, and once that is reported the bear is essentially marked for removal if Fish & Game or other pertinent agency can find it.
“A fed bear is a dead bear” is the mantra of people who work with wildlife, and the best thing you can do for them, both in terms of minimizing adverse reactions and for the nutritional health of the bear is to secure your food and trash so that they forage for the food sources that are naturally available to them.
When I was in college, a friend and I planned a trip to go camping in Banff National Park. We were city boys who had never done any serious camping before, so we did a lot of reading and research. We were rather concerned about the possibility of an encounter with a bear, so we planned that out – we learned how to minimize the chances of an encounter, when to run and when to play dead, how to hang our food, etc.
When we arrived at Banff, we discovered we had misjudged the season. It was early July, so we expected summer conditions, but in reality it was still rather chilly and there was a lot of snow on the ground that had not yet melted. Most of the trails we had planned to take were still closed due to snow. So the first day we just took a casual walk on a busy trail along a river and camped for the night a few miles out of town. We did not really consider ourselves in the “wilderness”, so we took no bear precautions. We left all our food in our packs, the remains of our dinner was out on a picnic table, and we even had some food in the tent with us.
In the middle of the night we were awakened by a bear loudly rummaging through our supplies a few feet from our tent. Exiting the tent and confronting the bear didn’t seem like a good idea, so we cowered in our tent until it eventually wandered off. We got out, threw our opened food into the river and hung the rest of it. The next day we awoke and found we were lying in a few inches of ice water, as we had pitched our tent in a shallow hollow. We lost interest in camping after that and spent the rest of the trip travelling around Canada and staying in hotels.
I’ve told the story before of having our wilderness campsite invaded on multiple consecutive occasions by a mama bear and her two cubs. Black bears (as opposed to grizzlies) are rarely aggressive, but you do not want to come between mama bear and her cubs.
This story unfortunately had a sad ending. Park rangers armed with both rifles and a tranquilizer gun came over to our site, intending to sedate Mom and relocate the family to the far north. Sadly, mama bear became aggressive and had to be shot for everyone’s safety. Happily, though, the cubs were found and safely relocated. The rangers assured us that there were signs that the cubs had learned to forage for berries and would be able to survive on their own.
Living in a place where bears are common (Northwest Montana), you quickly learn how to differentiate between black and a grizzly bears. My 13-year-old Jack Russell terrier is fearless and will chase a full-grown black bear off our property. If he tried to do that with a grizzly he would have been lunch.
Black bears, while dangerous if cornered or frightened, will try to find a way out even if that means running through you to get to wherever they are headed. Luckily, you can often frighten a black bear by making loud noises and waving your arms. In most cases, they will turn and head off in the opposite direction. I was walking my dog in the woods near my house one day and encountered a black bear sow with three cubs on the trail about 50 yards ahead of me. When she heard me approaching I froze to see what she would do. She immediately shooed her cubs up a tree and waited to see what I was going to do. I began walking backwards, headed to my house, and never saw her again.
If it had been a grizzly bear, depending on the bear’s mood, it might ignore you, or suddenly attack with tremendous fury, leaving you on the ground in pieces. If you see a grizzly the smartest thing to do is to back away slowly and find some kind of shelter until the bear leaves the area, especially if we are talking about a sow with cubs. An angry grizzly is not something you want to deal with on the trail… ever.
Love Vancouver Island! Have hiked and biked it a few times but not nearly enough.
I have had black bear incidents, but nothing that raised my hackles. I had to wait for a momma and cubs while I was on a dual-sport moto, but she didn’t seem concerned I was close. I’ve been deep in grizzly territory with huckleberry bushes towering over me and fresh scat everywhere that did raise my hackles but luckily, no encounters.
Yes, in that situation I was voluntarily trying to feed the bear in the same sense one might claim I was giving all my money to a mugger out of a sense of sheer altruism and goodwill.
It turned out it was not interested in our food though, since it walked past the food toward us. Despite it walking right up to within a few feet of us it didn’t seem aggressive at all; it had more of an aspect of a big curious dog. There was a hike-in cabin nearby, so it probably was used to people, and probably did get occasional scraps and handouts, though it didn’t seem hungry at that moment. Or maybe it didn’t like the quality of my jerky and trail mix
Brown and grizzly bears are generally larger with a pronounced hump between their shoulders and a more concave-shaped face. They are also less prone to just running away (although they will generally avoid intentional contact with people unless habituated or surprised) and will often make overt displays of aggression, i.e. standing on their hind legs, pronounced vocalizations (growling), and bluff (or non-bluff) charging. Brown and grizzly sows will aggressively protect cubs if they feel threatened. Older bears and especially males will often have white or grey coloration on their muzzle.
Black bears (which can actually be of any coloration between blonde and dark brown) are generally smaller (300 lbs is a big one), less aggressive to the point of avoiding contact (again, unless habituated with people) and rarely make displays of aggression outside of mating contests. Sows don’t attack to protect cubs as the cubs are taught to climb trees at the first sign of danger, and will generally make more anguished moaning vocalizations if they are trapped or feel like they can’t escape. Black bears tend to be more ‘clever’ in terms of figuring out how to open containers and gain entry into buildings, and can demonstrate surprising dexterity.
