Hanging out with Bears
A friend of mine just came back from the Peace Corps for a visit. All of his friends were invited to visit him at his parents house this weekend. They are almost all outdoor educators and so hold me in very high esteem. Before dinner, the last night we were there somebody called to me and asked me to tell a story about chasing bears. When I started to tell the wrong one, they said “No, the one about the cubs.” I said “Oh that one.” Not realizing they wanted a specific story. Then afterword I realized it was a great story to post here.
One morning on my way to work a mother bear and her 2 cubs jumped out in front of my car. Having always hoped to spend the day hanging out with a bear, I followed her as she turned into someone’s driveway. I jumped out of the car, and ran around the house in time to see the cubs disappearing into the woods. I knew the mother would be a little bit nervous, so I stopped at a narrow spot, and looked for tracks. I figured I’d give her a good head and catch up with her when she was a little more relaxed. When I last saw her she was leading the cubs and so I presumed she was still in front of them. As I leaned over to start examining the ground I heard the snapping of teeth. And there she was waiting to introduce herself. The cubs must not have even hesitated as she sent them off while she waited for me. I’m quite fortunate that I stopped there beside her because I feel certain if I had run past or she would come out and let me have it. But because I stopped where I did, she was satisfied to let me go with a warning. When she left I thought maybe she would forget about me after a while. So I decided I’d still try to find her later. Apparently the cubs weren’t quite sure what to do after she didn’t come back right away because I saw one of them come back so I decided to track it. It went into the thick stuff were I’d seen her last so I had to crawl on my hands and knees to follow the tracks. I was a good ways into the thicket when I started thinking about what the mother might think if she saw me following the baby, and it being too thick to stand up and run, it was then that I remembered something my wife said before I left that morning. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but it was something about me dying. So I decided to go work.
I’m sure I probably turned several shades of red, the way everyone reacted during the telling of that story. Its funny how normal those things seem until I view it through someone else’s eyes. Anyway, I don’t know if I already told you about that. But if I hadn’t I thought you would enjoy it.
