8/3/19 - Day 36 - Close Encounters of the Bear Kind


     We camped at an Alaskan Forest Service camp called Lakeview. It is a small, 11 site rustic camp along the shore of a small lake. The landscape to the west is fairly flat with the St Elias Mountains in the distance. To the east of the lake, the camp is set in a hillside that has a mixed  spruce and birch forest.

The lakeshore has a grass marsh surrounding most of it. The camp has a trail through the birch trees leading a few hundred feet to a bird blind.  After dinner I had gone down to the lake to get some sunset pictures. There were  a few groups of ducks peacefully paddling along and the sunlight cast a golden reflection on the lake.

I saw a beaver swimming across the lake in front of camp and it was heading north to the marshy side near the bird blind. I walked out the trail to see if I could catch the beaver as it climbed up the bank. Earlier we had walked out there and saw a lot of trees the beavers had cut down.

You can see the path
through the Birch trees.
The beaver swam into the marsh grass just as I got there, so I quietly walked a bit further up the trail along the bank to see if I could get a look at him. I heard the sound of wood crunching  coming from  behind me in the trees, so I  turned to look for a beaver gnawing on a tree.

Much to my surprise and consternation what I saw were four furry black legs in the gloom of the birch trees. It was less than 100 feet away from me padding away from the direction of camp. Most of the body was hidden by leaves, but this was obviously a large black bear!
My first thought... photo! 
My next thought... NO! My camera makes a clicking sound and I didn't want to draw attention to myself!
It's amazing how quickly your mind can take you through scenarios and options. Some of my thoughts were:
Hmmm, nobody except me here.
Pat is a few hundred feet away back in camp, reading peacefully.
I don't have the bear spray or a coat to make myself look bigger.
Never run from a bear, they might start to chase you.
The bird blind is a few feet away, I could get into it, maybe climb onto the roof.
There are chairs in the blind, I could use one of those like a lion tamer.

        By this time I was backing away toward the bird blind. The bear's legs had stopped moving, so I stopped moving. I looked behind me and above in the trees to make sure there wasn't a cub nearby. Then I backed up a few more steps to the bird blind. I grabbed a chair... they were chained to the floor! Yikes!  I peered out of the doorway and couldn't see the bear's legs anymore, but I did start to hear some loud crashing of brush heading away from me!

That is when I noticed my heart was pounding! I began backing along the trail toward camp.  Boy, was I looking carefully into the darkening trees to see if there was anything  else moving. After a few minutes without seeing or hearing the bear, I turned around and walked swiftly toward camp! Whew, no pictures  of the beaver or bear to prove my story, but I can still see those big furry black legs in my mind! 

In retrospect, the bear's heart was probably racing too which is why he went crashing through the brush. 

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