A mid-week hike turned out to be quite an eventful morning.
Hiking one of my favorite places, I stopped for a few minutes to rest. Looking up,
about eighty yards away a sow and one second year cub stepped into view. The two
bears continued across the road and milled around in a growth of hardwood saplings.
The wind was in my favor, I sat hoping the bears would reappear. It wasn’t long
the sow and cub walked back onto the road to meet two straggling cubs. The family
of four wouldn’t stay still long enough for a family portrait. The wind shifted and that immediately put the
sow on alert, she stood up on two legs, making a complete circle in effort to locate
what direction my scent was travelling. Recognizing danger, she dropped down to
all four and the bears disappeared into the distant woods. This was a perfect example
of where the wildlife experience outweighed any picture opportunity. It was a
thrill seeing the family of bears.
Jim
