Well, I’m slowly getting my legs back under me – been a while since a run has knocked me this hard. It has been said the recovery period after an ultra is just a forced sanity check to reconsider recent decisions. Note, Linda always sends me off with “Make good choices” knowing good and well I’ve probably already made 5 bad decision in the time it took her to tell me that. On the bright side, there is a comforting sense of knowing I could probably outrun any “breathing” danger that might await me on my runs (assumption roots do not have noses). Just in case, there are always friends around I could kneecap if I needed extra get-a-way time. Don’t feel bad for them, they are thinking the exact same thing – I imagine the amusement a Bear would have if it walked out onto our trail and saw the lot of us whacking each other with hiking poles and making overt suggestions regarding who might be tastier. Speaking of humor and unexpected wildlife encounters, I know the perfect post for today and it comes courtesy of Brad’s recent drop of new adventures. While I continue to rest and ponder some of those recent decision, we’ll let Brad lead us down the trail.
Remember…”Make good choices”…
There were two old guys, probably Wildlife Intrigued retirees, sitting on the porch at a retirement home. Each had a quilt on their laps and a shawl around their shoulders, happily rocking away in the August sunshine. There was a long-forgotten elbow brace sitting nearby. Nothing is said for what seems like forever. Then Old Guy (OG) #1 says, “I saw a bear once.”
“Where did you see a bear?” OG#2 asks somewhat incredulously.
“One day when I was hiking in the woods. It just jumped out of the brambles and stared at me,” says OG#1.
“It just jumped out of the woods? What did it do then?” questions OG#2.
“It went Grrrrr!” replies OG#1. (imagine a menacing growl)
“What did you do then?” quizzed OG#2.
“I s#!t my pants!” says OG#1 sheepishly.
“I would too if a bear jumped out of the woods, looked at me and went Grrrrr!” says OG#2 sympathetically.
“No, I mean right now when I went Grrrrr!”
(This joke was brought to you courtesy of my father-in-law. I think it’s one of his favorites.)
Well, that nearly happened to Jan and I. Except for the old guy part, the rocking chairs at the retirement home, and no quilts or shawls were involved. Our pants stayed clean, too. We were in the woods though.
Hit the jump to read more details about this Sequoian sized encounter!
Jan and I were on a leisurely hike on Tall Trees Trail in Sequoia National Park when we came upon two other hikers being very quiet and staring off into the woods. They gave us the universal symbol to be quiet (index finger held up to their lips) and then mouthed the word “Bear!”.
Sure enough, about 100 feet away, to the right of the trail, was a medium-sized bear working its way through the late summer berries. At first glance, the bear was brown. And at second, third and fourth glances as well. Not knowing bears very well, my first thought ran to grizzlies. But also knowing we were in Southern California (SoCal), there are no grizzlies. Turns out it was an American Black Bear (Ursus americanus). In SoCal, black bears spend so much time in the sun that their black fur turns brown from sun bleaching. Gnarly, I know. We watched it for a few moments, not really sure if we were a safe distance away or not.
A rule of thumb we heard from a ranger talk is that if you can hold up your thumb at arm’s length and you can cover the animal, you are at a safe distance. I think my full palm might have covered the bear at this point, but certainly not my thumb. Something else a park ranger had said came to mind: If it’s black, fight back — if it’s brown, lay down — if it’s white, good night.
The four of us gathered there kept watching out of curiosity and just a little bit of fear. We slowly walked backwards a few feet further down the trail, but not really far enough. The bear seemed to become disinterested in more berries, or had eaten them all (we didn’t check that closely) and it wandered deeper into the woods. Or so we thought. Jan hiked back up the trail to warn the people a couple hundred yards behind us that there was a bear in the area.
Not thirty seconds after she left us, there was a crashing through the underbrush. The noise wasn’t because the bear was moving quickly, it was simply not very quiet about walking. Then I saw it a few yards off the trail near where we had been standing. I wasn’t really sure what to do at that point with a black bear only about 50 feet away. Then I remembered Jan was due to be walking back right about then so I shouted “Jan, Stop!”
As Jan heard me shout “Stop!” she had just rounded a corner on the path. A couple of seconds later, the bear walks out of the brush, about 25 feet in front of her.
Like any good photographer she starts clicking off photos. Then she holds out her arm to stop the people walking up behind her.
I, at the “much safer” distance of 50 feet, am also taking photos as fast as I can. The bear was moving at a good clip, perpendicular to the path we were standing on, crossing directly between Jan and I.
Jan was just behind the tree on the right of this photo when she took the shot two photos above. It was headed for the succulent treats waiting in the meadow across the path. The bear made its way to the meadow, squeezing between two sequoia “seedling” trees.
No time for detours here.
Once it reached its new treats, it seemed perfectly content and completely ignored the humans with, or without, cameras.
Once we came to our senses (our thumbs still would not have covered the bear) we decided to continue down the trail, AWAY from the bear. We also remembered that there was a ranger giving a talk near the start/end of the trail. When we reached the end, sure enough, the ranger was still there with her tour group. We interrupted and said something like, “Sorry to interrupt, but there’s a bear on the trail about 100 yards from here.” Instead of showing concern for a bear being around people, she asked the group, “Who wants to see a bear?” All of their hands went up immediately. Then she said, “Let’s go,” and off they went. The ranger obviously knew something we didn’t know about that particular bear.
Jan and I continued to the parking lot, a bit more vigilant than we had been just a few moments earlier. Where there’s one small-medium sized bear, there are sure to be more. This one must have been a first year, on its own for the first time. We were worried about a momma bear coming out of the woods, but heard and saw nothing after that. I can say we did walk a bit quicker to the car than we had been on the hike around the meadow.
We’ve reached the end.
I also want to say we can answer the quintessential question, “Does a bear poop in the woods?” We have photographic evidence of said poop, seeds and all.
Thank you for reading. If you want to see more bear photos from our SW National Park tour, please visit here.
Credits
Thanks again to Jan for proofreading and editing. Allyson is on assignment. Thanks to Jan for many of the photos in this article.
Wildlife Intrigued 
And there you were walking around in the woods with a bear behind. Excellent bear photos.
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Thanks Tim. We were lucky to see one and lucky it didn’t care if we were there. I think I would have been the one everyone else outran. I didn’t even have my bazooka lens with me to use for defense.
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You would have been in trouble with no bazooka in hand.
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Yup. The 18-70mm wouldn’t get me much.
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You ain’t going to get no respect from a bear with an 18-70. That’s for sure.
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Hmmm, seems like you would be a good person to take out in the field with us ha.
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Only with big glass. Or a monopod.
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Sorry, no clubs allowed on birding excursions…wait…except me.. I can have one hehehehe.
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When in doubt, carry a pic’kin’ic basket and hope Boo Boo is not far away so he can steer his friend to the basket and not the carrier. Serendipity, good or bad, nice adventure.
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We joked about Boo Boo afterwards, once the adrenalin wore off a bit. When we saw that the park ranger wasn’t too concerned, at least outwardly, we relaxed a bit. Thanks Jerry.
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What a great bear story you two have! Woo-hoo! Very exciting, well documented, and truly wonderful. It’s always happier afterwards, when you’re safe and it’s over, but pretty terrifying when it’s underway and you’re close to a big and active bear. Thanks for being so brave, you two, and taking these excellent photos.
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Thanks Jet, but I’m not sure “bravery” is the word I would have used. There were many tourists around so we had a fighting chance if it changed it’s mind. We still talk about that encounter. I did look at the Zoom info from the photos on the lens Jan was using. She had to pull back quite a bit to fit the bear into the viewfinder meaning she was twice as close as I was; purely by accident.
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Boy, it was close. Good thing it had its mind on berries 😏. Excellent photos!
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Thank you. We were very glad it ignored us to fatten up for winter.
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Wow! In all of our travels and all of the national parks we’ve visited, we’ve only seen bears twice: once in Great Smoky and once in Yellowstone. The Yellowstone was a Grizzly and we only saw it through binoculars, but it still was a thrill! I truly don’t want to meet up with any bear on a hike. I absolutely loved the joke!! Have a great weekend.
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Thank you. We, too, “only” saw a black bear in Yellowstone, but it was about 75 yards away. I had to use my longest lens with a teleconverter and a Jan-pod (me resting the camera on Jan’s shoulder) to get a tiny photo of it from that distance. Though at that time, I was more mindful of the sleeping bison about 15 yards away. Thanks for stopping by.
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What an adventure! You can add this story to the list you will be telling your family when you are the old guy in the rocking chair!
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Yes, it was quite an adventure. What started out as a hike through the Tall Trees, turned into an encounter with wildlife. Curiosity overrode the fear response.
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Beautiful shots but, I think diapers are good idea at this point…for bears and rocking chairs.
Brian…continue healing quickly.
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I’m trying – that last race put some years back on me and just now getting back on the horse so to speak. It will be a lot easier to give the body proper rest once the haunt season has passed.
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Thank you. That’s the closest I’ve ever been to a bear that was not in a zoo.
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Yikes.
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Thank you. Even a scared tourist gets a nice photo every now and then. Hopefully both diapers and rocking chairs are far in the future.
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Another great post! Something different seems to always be offered by Mother Nature just to see if we’re paying attention.
I really like the photo of the bear between the trees. Nice portrait.
It’s easy to see why we are surprised when one of these magnificent creatures appears in the wild. We seldom hear them since they are — bear-footed.
(Sorry.)
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No apologies needed here, we love a good pun!
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I liked the pun Wally, just wish I’d thought of it first. Appreciate your kind comments on the photos and the experience. Thanks for stopping by.
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Breathtaking bear photos! I don’t know how I would react is I saw this bear. I probably, would have been scared to death but I tried to get a few shots. These are unique moments!
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Yes they were Kaya. I think we are realizing this now that we are a couple of weeks removed from the experience.
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Great write-up and photos, Brad! I, too, encountered bears in Sequoia, but “mine” were a ginger-colored and momma and baby, and 2 black ones diving into water and swimming! I was a little terrified, but mostly excited to see them. Unlike you, I didn’t get a bunch of good photos. Just a few. Great job! 🙂
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We’ve always paid attention to the animal warning signs, but have never seen any. Now, when there was no sign, we see a bear. Seeing a family of them would have been a great experience, but a terrifying one. Thanks Lisa.
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What a Grrreat bear story in both word and picture, Brad. I’m glad the bear was more interested in berries than in tourists. Once you have seen one from a close distance, you will always be hyperalert when entering their habitat.
And best wished for your recovery, Brian. You need to start to listen to your wife. 🙂
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Thanks for the well wishes Tanja – every day is another (mini) step closer to getting back to where I need to be. On the Linda front, she wanted me to wear a bubblewrap suit in my last ultra (https://www.amazon.com/THUMBS-UP-BUBCOS-ThumbsUp-Costume/dp/B0092ODOMQ/) …so… I am not sure about that “start to listen” advice – I’d be laughed out of the woods by the bears hahaha.
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I see her point, though! 🙂
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Hey now, you are supposed to be on my side…
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I try to be on the side of reason. 😊
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I guess I cannot fault that reasoning, but a safe Bri is a boring Bri..just saying hehehehe.
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That’s something only you can figure out!
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Maybe I’ll ponder that on my next day long run…lord knows I need something to dwell on or I’ll start hearing the legs whine.
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Thanks Tanja, we were too. We have seen lots of small furry critters close up before, but nothing quite compares to this bearly (misspelling on purpose) safe encounter. I think my heart finally slowed down a couple of hours later.
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Having been in similar situations, I can relate. Some of these situations even included grizzlies and I can tell you that it took a looong time for my pulse to slow down then! 🐻
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You were quite close to a bear! I’m not sure how I would have reacted in a similar situation. I’d rather encounter a bear from the safety of a photography hide. Fortunately, the bear seemed more interested in other things than the people nearby.
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I agree that I would want to have a little more control over the next photo encounter with a wild animal like the bear. We did end up with some pretty cool photos of natural behavior. Thanks Minna.
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