Bear Close Encounter

Holy crap did I have a close call tonight.  Had a nice camp spot, out of the wind.  Was in my bag when I heard a noise above my head up the hill about ten feet.  I look up and a skunk is coming out of the woods toward me.  I say, 'Hey, please don't come out here.'  So he turns around and goes back in the woods.

About 9:10 pm it's dark out and I'm half asleep.  I hear what sounds like a sick baby wailing and I'm very wrongly thinking the skunk is back.  I turn on my headlamp and all hell breaks loose.  It is a mother bear and cub about six feet from the foot of my sleeping bag.

The baby scrambles up the big pine in the center of the clearing, you know the one I'm camped under.  The mother runs in a circle then across the clearing up the hill and starts calling out to the cub.  I grab my video camera and one trekking pole and scramble to a rock at the other end of the clearing with my back unfortunately against impenetrable bush.

It's a standoff.  Mother bear freaking out, baby up tree, me in rocks and all my gear at the base of the tree baby bear is treed in.

I did my best to get a night shot of the bear but it wasn't gonna happen.  You should be able to hear the mother calling and I did a reasonably good commentary.

The mother seemed to calm down after a few minutes, or at least I was pretty sure she wasn't going to maul me.  So I went down, packed my gear and quietly passed by the other side of the tree and made my way back to the PCT.

I did one final look back with the head lamp and those bear eyes were lit up like torches.  Pretty cool encounter I don't think I will soon forget.