I can’t begin to tell you how often we are asked about seeing snakes and bears… well, this was the official week of OUR FIRST SNAKE AND BEAR ENCOUNTER.
The Feature Photo shows a snake that was on the trail this afternoon (Easter Sunday) and the Bear encounter actually happened earlier this week.
Sorry that there is not a photo of the bear, however it’s roar will forever be etched in my mind.
Here’s the deal… we had just set up camp a bit later in the evening (due to such a long hike). I had to retreat about a quarter mile for water while Slipper prepared inside the tent for sleeping.
We hurried to cook and filter water and finally got everything ready to call it a night.
I couldn’t find a real good spot to hang all the food, so I had to hang it a bit closer to the tent and trail than I would like.
We are both asleep by 8:30 pm and are awakened around 11:30 pm by the uncontrolled barking of two dogs. I told Slipper that they were either barking at some type of animal or perhaps they had treed a racoon!
After about 5 minutes of this insane barking, the sound of the barking changed (we could tell that the dogs were now inside a house and yet continued to bark at something).
Come to find out, there is a house no further that 100 yards from the trial!
Suddenly there were 5 loud roars from a large bear!
How do I know it was a bear?
“Google” Bear Sounds and listen to the roar of a Black Bear.
This was the roar we heard… 5 times… on 3 separate occassions… all in less that 10 minutes.
We both laid still and breathed as softly as possible. I had the Emergency Whistle at my side and a knife in reach (like that was going to do something).
You can only begin to imagine what was running through my mind. Why did I watch the movie: “Revenant” two times before beginning our hike?
At the end of the day, this was our first bear encounter… one that was too close for comfort… and one that I don’t care to repeat.
You can bet that I will be hanging our food and anything with a scent, Down wind from our tent.
Go ahead and “Goggle” the roar of a Black Bear and listen to it before you go to bed.
Nuff said!
