…I met a bear

I was on a run on the Brotherhood Bridge Trail with Maggie and Oso.  For those unfamiliar with the area Brotherhood Bridge Trail is sort of like a greenbelt.  It goes about 2 miles through the forest and has a trailhead at each end.

The main Brotherhood Bridge Trail is actually paved and dogs must be kept on leash there.  I don’t like to run with both the dogs on leash so I decided to take the narrow dirt “horse trail” which parallels the Brotherhood Bridge Trail for most of the route (you have to cut back onto the main trail to cross a creek) where dogs are allowed to run loose.

We were about 1/3 of the way into our run when the dogs suddenly got very excited.  Oso took off into the bushes to my left and when I looked in that direction I saw a black bear!  The bear was about 30 feet away in a tree but only a couple of feet off the ground.  It looked like a young bear, maybe a yearling, but not a cub (phew!).  It was adorable!  These black bears are tricky because it is very difficult to be frightened of something so cute!

Luckily Maggie has better instincts, she took one look at the bear and ran away down the trail (good dog!).  Meanwhile, I could not see Oso but I could hear him barking at the bear.  I called him but his normal response to wildlife is to bark until it is tree-d or runs away.  The bear started to move around and I wasn’t sure what it was going to do…

So I ran away.

Folks, this is not what you should do if you meet a bear!  For me, however, this was a calculated risk.  I knew that if I left Oso would follow me so we would not be harassing the bear.  We were also far enough away from the bear in the first place (and it was in a tree) so it could not easily charge us.  Almost as soon as I took off Oso trotted up behind me, probably wondering why I didn’t help him scare the bear away.  Luckily, the bear did not follow him.

I did the rest of my run with on the heavily-trafficed main trail.

He has no idea I used him as Bear Bait