I've come fairly close to different animals in the wild before; moose, mountain lion, buffalo, wolf, skunk, raccoon, rabbit; but this was a new one. I saw a BEAR!! For Labor Day our family drove up to a park near Bear Mountain State Park and cooked our breakfast outdoors. We do this several times during the summer and it's lots of fun. We had eaten breakfast and we were just relaxing and letting the kids play. Annie was fussy, so Jeff took her on a walk down a trail and the rest of us stayed at the picnic site. A little while later, Michael and I were climbing on a big rock and I hear my mom say, "Um, Emily, there is a bear over there." (She was pretty calm about it). I look over and there is a black bear at the picnic table next to us. At that point it was probably about 30-35 feet away. At first I thought, "Oh, cool!" But I quickly got the kids and told mom to start taking them to the car. Christopher was pretty worried about it but Michael was pretty nonchalant and just stayed by me. It was just slowing walking along looking for food around the picnic bench. I know you are just supposed to make noise so they know you are there and don't get startled. It kept looking at us, but didn't seem to mind. So, I sent my mom and kids on the way to the car and I hurried and packed up our stuff. I yelled for Jeff because I knew he would be really disappointed if he missed it, but he was too far away. The closest it got to us was about 20 feet, while I was cleaning up the site. When I knew the kids were out of the way, I stopped to try and take a picture, but by that point it had started to walk off into the woods, so the picture wasn't that great. But I will post it when I get it off the camera. The picture above isn't the actual bear we saw, but it's pretty close to what it looked like. When I went back to look for Jeff he was so upset he missed it. We actually went up the hill a little way to look for it, but couldn't find it again. It wasn't a huge bear, about medium sized. On all fours it came to about my waist. It was a really cool experience. It makes me remember my college days desire to be a park ranger. :)
Monday, September 1, 2008
Close Encounters
I've come fairly close to different animals in the wild before; moose, mountain lion, buffalo, wolf, skunk, raccoon, rabbit; but this was a new one. I saw a BEAR!! For Labor Day our family drove up to a park near Bear Mountain State Park and cooked our breakfast outdoors. We do this several times during the summer and it's lots of fun. We had eaten breakfast and we were just relaxing and letting the kids play. Annie was fussy, so Jeff took her on a walk down a trail and the rest of us stayed at the picnic site. A little while later, Michael and I were climbing on a big rock and I hear my mom say, "Um, Emily, there is a bear over there." (She was pretty calm about it). I look over and there is a black bear at the picnic table next to us. At that point it was probably about 30-35 feet away. At first I thought, "Oh, cool!" But I quickly got the kids and told mom to start taking them to the car. Christopher was pretty worried about it but Michael was pretty nonchalant and just stayed by me. It was just slowing walking along looking for food around the picnic bench. I know you are just supposed to make noise so they know you are there and don't get startled. It kept looking at us, but didn't seem to mind. So, I sent my mom and kids on the way to the car and I hurried and packed up our stuff. I yelled for Jeff because I knew he would be really disappointed if he missed it, but he was too far away. The closest it got to us was about 20 feet, while I was cleaning up the site. When I knew the kids were out of the way, I stopped to try and take a picture, but by that point it had started to walk off into the woods, so the picture wasn't that great. But I will post it when I get it off the camera. The picture above isn't the actual bear we saw, but it's pretty close to what it looked like. When I went back to look for Jeff he was so upset he missed it. We actually went up the hill a little way to look for it, but couldn't find it again. It wasn't a huge bear, about medium sized. On all fours it came to about my waist. It was a really cool experience. It makes me remember my college days desire to be a park ranger. :)
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2 comments:
Wow! I think I would have run for the car. We had a bear break into our food once when we were camping and we were all 'frozen' in the tent. We finally got brave enough to run to the cars and slept in them. In the morning our car had bear paw prints running down the windows. Totally scared all of us - then in the morning we see the signs that say to make lots of noise, etc. to scare the bears away :)
I'm with Becca - I am so impressed by how you all kept your cool! I would have been running to the car with the kids! I love how your mom alerted you to the bear in such a calm way!
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