We saw much track and sign of bear and other things on our hike. To get home we went down a ridge to get to Indian River trail which is a popular hiking trail near town. It was getting late so we tried to keep up a pretty good pace once we got onto the official trail.
Now, the salmon are starting to run in Indian River and there have been a number of brown bear sightings even near residential areas near the river. I think even when the salmon aren't running bear are not uncommon in the valley. So many people are a little nervous about the possibility of having an unscheduled bear encounter. In fact when we had started up the trail a couple started about the same time and had indicated some nervousness about that possibility.
Anyway, that wasn't really on my mind as we caught up with a family also hiking back down Indian River trail. As we were coming up on them several of them glanced back at us and seemed to be preparing to let us pass. The dad, who was in front looked back and said "Look, there's a bear" - joking about us being a bear. The family response was a general "yeah, yeah, real funny" sort of attitude. Assuming they all realized that we were behind them, on a whim I played along and let out a little "grrr" (of the sort a person might make when playing bears with children). That little growl was met with an unexpectedly enthusiastic response from the mother who nearly jumped out of her skin - fortunately I was far enough back still to be safe from the hefty walking stick she was carrying. Her husband thought it was all quite funny (I have to admit I was amused myself) and she made a few choice remarks about men as we went on by.
Probably a mile further down the trail I stopped as I heard an odd noise coming from a ways away on the other side of the river. At first I thought it was some wind, but that didn't seem quite right as it wasn't moving and it seemed to be coming from one place instead of a large area. After a few seconds it stopped then came back again for a shorter period. The only thing I can think of that might have made that sort of sound there is a bear roaring (and it was coming from an area where we had seen a lot of bear activity). The fact that something that was probably a quarter to half mile away made a noise so loud gave me something to think about. Certainly not something I would want to have directed at me at close range. I imagine it would be quite bone-rattling.
After listening for a bit longer (and not hearing any more), we continued on. Matthew wanted to walk in front for awhile since my pace did not comfortably fit with his natural pace at that time. So probably another mile down the trail, he was twenty feet or so in front of me when I heard some twig snapping to the side of the trail as he passed. I looked over and just 10 feet off the trail a bear looked up and went bounding off into the bushes. It was probably a yearling (though I'm not real sure about bear sizing/aging) - about three feet tall at the shoulder. I suspect it is the bear that we saw so much track and sign from earlier in the week as the tracks we found were a bit below the size range listed for brown bear.
It would have been nice to go back and look for where the bear was roaring from (perhaps there would be evidence of a confrontation) and where the bear ran off but there wasn't really time or energy to do it then (not to mention being unsafe) and I left on the airplane the next day. All in all it was a great way to wrap up my time in Sitka.
No comments:
Post a Comment