Continuing my Friday series on memorable hikes…
My husband and I went camping in Itasca State Park. This park is a beautiful treasure in Minnesota. In this park, the headwaters of the Mississippi begin. We camped here with our boys when they were younger, but this year it was just my husband and I.
One afternoon we took off hiking on a trail from the campground, and I was in the lead. As we were walking along I noticed black in the treetops above me, on my right. I stopped to look and noticed there were two black cubs high in the tree…so then I thought…hmmm, where’s mama?
I looked to the left of the path and there she was, staring right at us. At that moment I couldn’t remember what I was suppose to do. We’ve been to so many parks and read so many signs telling one how to react to bears…black bears or grizzly bears… play dead for one and act big for another, but in this moment – when I needed to know – I forgot! So we stood there, and then slowly stepped backwards. The cubs climbed down the tree, walked over the path in front of us and joined their mama, all the while the mama kept her eyes on us. And we kept our eyes on her too!
When the cubs were safely with their mama we watched them scamper off into the woods and we kept going on our hike, happy to have had a safe, and memorable, encounter with the black bears.
Oh, my. They say fear paralyzes and I guess you proved that, although you did get that photo. I’m happy this story ended well.
Thanks, me too.
Oh my gosh, Valerie! That is really terrifying. It does seem true that we can be paralyzed by fear. But, maybe just standing still was what you were supposed to do. Thank the Lord!
Yes, I think standing there was best, especially with two cubs in the scenario.