see a bear in the wild

Living close to and hiking in the Smoky Moutains, where black bears are abundant, I’ve had many bear siteings and encounters. Spring time in the Smokies is a good time to come across a bear. Most are coming out of hibernation and are on the prowl for some food.

Unfortunately, many bears in the park have become familar with the picinic area and campgounds and drop in on occasion to to check out the dumpster scene. The bears are quite skilled at sniffing out food, wherever it may be, including locked cars. They are masters at breaking and entering – those pesty educated bears on welfare!

Both ours and my in-laws bird feeders were tipped over and ravaged. I don’t think it was Bambi. . .

This would totally require me being outside somewhere….

We’ve known that we have bears on our mountain land for years. They steal the honey and kill the bees. They leave footprints everywhere and scratch their backs on large rocks. But I finally saw one, well a bear cub is just as good as the real thing right. He was like a big ball of black fluff. I couldn’t even see his face because he was so fluffy. SOOOOOO cute!

I recently went to Phoenix AZ for two weeks. I had only been there one day when my husband called me, out of breath and excited; I’m sorry to call you again but I have to tell someone, I just say a 300 lb. bear at the bird feeder!
The bear, of course, has never been back this summer. I hope I don’t run into him on my mountain bike.

Yeah!!!! I saw a little cinnamon colored bear run across the trail as I lead a 2-hour ride to Cooney Lake today! YEAH!

I will reward myself with a cold beer when I actually see a bear in the wild. The head packer here says that he puts the mule pads over the food coolers in the backcountry because bears don’t like the smell of mules. So, I am pretty darn sure that at some point I will see a bear this summer. Very cool!

Yellowstone is your prime opportunity to see a bear in the wild. Saw adult and juvenile grizzly and black bears there. One, much much closer than I was comfortable with. Only about 40 meters away!

Something crossed the top of a hill just as we were approaching it in our jeep. It looked like a big shaggy dog with fat legs and it sort of lumbered rather then trotted, (like a dog does). By the time we got to were it had crossed it was no where to be seen, it had disapeared in the deep woods.

but scary! You may have to hang out my trash bins late at night in the woods, but bears are a weirdly huge yet timid (hopefully) sight.