[at-l] Re: bear stories

[itinerant_ej@yahoo.com (EJ Baker)]

I saw a few bears in the distance in the Shenandoahs last year--along with a whole line of cars and families all standing by the side of the road staring,waving, getting out their binoculars...then ran into a beautiful looked like 200 pounder the morning of my last shenandoah's day--literally.  It was around 6 am, I was walking lost in thought, the bear was looking under rocks for slugs on the path, no doubt also lost in bear reverie.  He saw me just before I ran into him.  He hid behind a bush--as if a 200 pound bear could really fit behind a bush--and looked extremely scared (well, my bear interp.)  I sang as loudly as I could to reassure him I was leaving and walked steadily away--from others' stories, I seemed to luck out--got the only bear in the shenandoahs who was still scared of people (in fact, the only wild animal.  Leprechaun had to throw sticks at a deer--though intentionally not hitting--in order to get him to stop following them to the shelters).
On Waywayanda in NJ I had a confrontational encounter with an adolescent bear--he started to run from me, then turned around and stared me in the  face, raised up on his haunches.  I sang "treat me nice" in my very best Elvis vibrato--he ran.  Told this to a friend who hikes in the Adirondacks all the time.  Next month he had a confrontational bear encounter in the dacks and sang "let me be your teddy bear" in his best Elvis vibrato--the bear ran.  You can draw your own conclusions from this.
EJ



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