Black Bear encounter while hiking...

[DC2.2GSR]

I posted this over on Whiteblaze.net (AT forum), but I thought you guys might like a good story as well. I had quite an interesting experience last night...

We hiked up the PA side of the Delaware Water Gap towards the Kirkridge Shelter and camped just north of Lunch Rocks (< 1 mile north of the the shelter) this weekend, June 27 - 28. About 8:00pm on Saturday, we were startled by a large black bear that wandered right along the trail southbound, about 20 yards max from our site. From some previous research I guessed this bear may have weight 300 lbs +, but not more. Our food was hung already and we weren't doing anything out of the ordinary, just relaxing around a fire quietly. The bear scared the hell out of us since it was so close, but we soon realized that it payed us no attention whatsoever so we relaxed. It didn't so much as look twice at us. He/she was alone, no cubs. Call it what you may, bravery or stupidity, but we actually slowly walked closer to it to take some pictures as it was digging through an old stump to find bugs. Honestly it was a very very comfortable encounter. There was not a single moment that I felt threatened or thought that we were making the bear uncomfortable. We still stayed smart and payed close attention to the bear's body language, but as I said, it showed no care in the world that we were there. The bear continued south (towards the shelter) and down the steep hill that is the 'face' of Lunch Rocks. He was gone.

However...

About 15 minutes later we were still jabbering about how cool the bear was, when another bear came from the same direction and on the same path as the first one. It was the same distance away when we noticed it even though we were scanning the trees on high alert because of being worked up by the first bear. This experience was much different. This guy was so much different looking than the first one. I would not doubt that he weighed 450 lbs+ easily. His face was larger and more 'male'. The bulk on this animal was incredible. We had four people with us, but two of them were in their tents. With just me and a small female friend in view it was obvious that he did not feel threatened and came towards us. It was a step or two sideways, then a turn, sniff, head turn away, then a step towards. Another sideways look, then a half-raise on his hind legs, then another 2 steps towards. At that moment we were backed up past our fire ring and almost past our tents. My other friends both stepped out of their tents. As soon as the bear saw two more larger people, he made a very quick swinging motion with his front legs away from us and took a few quick steps and was gone.

This larger bear showed no fear of us until he was startled by the other people. He wanted what we had and was coming for it. He did not look aggressive necessarily, but I felt that he would not hesitate to become aggressive if we made the right (or wrong) move. My friend put it best... "There was a whole different feeling comin' off of that bear." It's true. I felt threatened. Not at all like the first one.

We did not sleep until about 4am.

I guess that aside from being a great experience overall and a fun story, this has basically just been a HUGE learning experience for me. I've now seen the personalities of bears in the wild that couldn't have been more different. I've learned that not every bear wants you dead. haha. I've learned that body language is so very important, both reading the animal and showing it yourself to convey a certain message. The most valued piece of new info I've gathered is in regards to the animal's stealth. I was always under the impression that bears made crashing noises, huffed and puffed, grunted, and generally were loud as hell in the woods. WRONG. These bears were extremely silent. I could have tossed a stick or rock underhanded and hit each bear, but the entire time (about 10 min of 'contact' total) we didn't hear so much as a shuffle of leaves or a twig breaking. If we were looking the other way we would have easily missed the first one and not seen the second until he was close enough to touch.

Being so close to two animals that could take your life in a heartbeat if they wanted to, and having them calmly walk away instead was an incredible experience. The adrenaline rush was awesome!

Here's the first bear digging through a stump for bugs. My friends Joanna and Zach are in the pic:




While it wasn't the worst scenario possible it was still real cool. Anyone else ever see one in the wild?

[TurboTagTeam]

Damn, I ride up there all the time.....I stopped to piss in the woods on saturday right north of the Gap and I was thinking about wildlife tryin to **** me up lol.

So....if you were hiking/camping on state lands you cant carry a firearm with you correct? So if a bear decides that you look tasty you're pretty much screwed?

[DPancoast]

sheesh... thats nutso

[**Alex**]

I woulda out ran somebody if that were me.

[Scapegoat]

thats nuts.

everything you hear about bears and being around people is that they attack. I guess with no cubs around they're a bit more docile than we're led to believe. not that i'd get anywhere near one haha.

at least you've got a cool story, and are able to tell others about it

[Vr-4-Life]

Dude thats crazy.. I was just at the water gap on saturday.. my girlfriend and I hiked for about 4 hours.

[den9]

i went up there this year and last year, walking on that fire road i always seen paw prints in the mud. that bear could of been marking its territory on the stump, or the 2nd one could of been chasing some pussy.

we have bears up the mountains all the time, we had this telephone pole up there that this bear would always tear up marking its turf for breeding season, well we took the pole out of the ground 3 or 4 years ago and threw it in the woods and the same bear comes back and still scratches the same pole. btw i seen your older posts at whiteblaze


oh yeah its not surprising the bear payed no attention, they are probably used to people, and its the same thing with other people, they dont want nothing to do with you, unless they feel their cubs are threatened. brown bear on the other hand might be hungry for you because they eat more than bugs, toads and berries.

im not sure if you can carry a gun because parts of the trail are national land, and some parts are game lands, and some part arent labeled. there is still a ban on carrying on federal land. either way when i went we brought a gun anyway, even though u have a higher chance of needing it in your own home.

[james_ls]

Oh...word?

[ITSTOCK]

Black bear attacks on humans are extremely rare, but it's always best to use caution. Most attacks happen when, as noted, you see cubs. That's a time that you don't want to be anywhere near them. However, most times you'll know that the cubs are around (the mother will act aggressive and make all sorts of noise). BTW, early summer is their mating time, when they are especially aggressive.

In all fairness, that bear seems incredibly close for you to be laughing and taking pictures, and in retrospect, it would have probably been better for you to just slowly back away. When they are at a distance, you can usually just scream at them and they will run away, but I'm not sure how well that would go over with it so close to you.

I've seen a decent amount of black bears up in Carbon County (Jim Thorpe), but have never been that close, nor would I want to be that close.

Either way, it really is an awe inspiring experience. Seeing a bear stand on it's hinds at full upright position is just incredible!

[den9]

we have bears all the time out front of my mountain house, we have a 400-500 pounder up there now. my dad shot a 360 pounder and just got it back from the taxidermist, its awesome.

we have all kinds of pictures and videos from our mountains because we have a feeder out front, always see turkey, deer, raccoon and bear. we have video of the cubs every other year, when they are in danger they climb up trees, its amazing how fast they can get up there.

we used to have problems with the bears, they stole the grease pan from our grill, ate through a bag of cement, chewed a hole in a gas can, tore the box off the telephone pole, knocked down the feeder multiple times, and they were trying to get through my dads truck bed cover because there was 200 pounds of corn feed back there. they are a nuisance but we gotta live with it, plus its cool having them around.

[DC2.2GSR]

Originally Posted by ITSTOCK

Black bear attacks on humans are extremely rare, but it's always best to use caution. Most attacks happen when, as noted, you see cubs. That's a time that you don't want to be anywhere near them. However, most times you'll know that the cubs are around (the mother will act aggressive and make all sorts of noise). BTW, early summer is their mating time, when they are especially aggressive.

actually, when the cubs are around she's going to be "blustery" which isn't aggression at all. i found this site the other day and read literally every word written about black bears. i've got this minor obsession with learning about them since i saw those two at DWG.

here are the two articles that i was most interested in:

How dangerous are bluff charges?

Harmless Bluster

In all fairness, that bear seems incredibly close for you to be laughing and taking pictures, and in retrospect, it would have probably been better for you to just slowly back away. When they are at a distance, you can usually just scream at them and they will run away, but I'm not sure how well that would go over with it so close to you.

you're right to a point, but getting that close (in the pic) not even a choice of ours. that bear was that close when we saw it for the first time. he silently just showed up. that pic was actually taken from my seat on a rock next to our fire pit. it was only after we really carefully watched and saw that the bear had no interest and wasn't the slightest bit bothered by us that we walked a little closer. as i said, we still watched it and didn't completely let our guard down, so even if the bear decided he didn't want us that close any more, we would have plenty of options. we had pepper spray out and had plenty of lethal defense ready for an extreme worst case scenario. if at any time we would have felt a little uncomfortable we would have just backed up. with that second bear though, backing up (and thinking about defense) was the first reaction because of the way it was acting.

Either way, it really is an awe inspiring experience. Seeing a bear stand on it's hinds at full upright position is just incredible!

dead on there, seeing those things out there was one of the best experiences i've had in the woods yet!

[den9]

so black bears are complete pussies? if a bear plunged after me i probably wouldnt think twice to shoot it, i wouldnt take a chance, i keep my distance anyway.

brown bears on the other hand are no joke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JVka...eature=related

[InLoveWithBoost]

there are so many in my area in north NJ... we have been having a problem actually with foxes lately. They howl like a girls being raped.

[3rdGenMr2Girl]

^ this is the truth. my friend has a garage near woods and when we're working at night you'll hear screams like someone getting murdered, it's the foxes.

[den9]

black bear encounter while working in the office

my dad just got his bear back the other day




heres what he looked like before it was shot

[den9]

heres some from out front of our mountain house

this one is 400-500 pounds, the smaller their ears, the bigger their bodies. this one is atleast 6 foot




heres 2, you can see the feeder, and the shooting backstop

[TurboTagTeam]

^ holy ****.....

[mcperson2k]

We have a cabbin up in the mountains.. I have seen bears and cubs up there quite often on the hillsides... Never that close though. That would scare me. Although apparently one time before I was born, a bear got into the cabbin while everyone was out one night. Crazy stuff... That would scare me being so close.

[den9]

Originally Posted by TurboTagTeam

^ holy ****.....

My dad likes to think of that as pets. Before we built a house their, there was an old trailer we tore down, one time the bears got in their and tore through everything, eating deodrant and chewing through cans of shaving cream. Like I said before they ate bags and cement and gas cans too, its crazy.

[215ek]

shake that bear...
wondering if anyone knows what im talking about hahaha
ewwwww!