bear encounter!

[Mike D.]

Thursday morning at about 5 a m I was just past Baldy Village ( just beyond the Buck Horn). I had park my truck and was sitting on the tailgate drinking some coffee waiting for the sun to rise when out of now where a bear comes towards me from the side of the road. I slowly got into the cab of my truck gave the horn a toot and off the bear went. He didn't seem very intersested in my being, but it sure did startle me.
Have any one you had an occurrence like this? If so, what did you do and what is the best thing to do?

[Buzzsaw]

JRA, a buddy and I were riding down a fire road in the spring a couple years ago. We were moving around 25-30 mph coming around a slight turn. The fire road had a steep upslope to our right and a drop off to our left. After making the turn, I was in front, up in the crook of the fr and upslope I saw this furry creature with his back to us nibbling on some grass. At first I thought it was one of those old sheep dogs. It's fur was ratty, almost like it had dred locks. At our speed and suddenly coming up on it, we didn't have much time to stop. If we were to stop we would have stopped right next to it. So, I started yelling at it. The thing looked up and turned towards us. This is when I noticed it to be a bear. It started down the fr at a slow trot. He looked over his shoulder and noticed we were still coming at him with speed. I was thinking that we could just pass by him at speed with no problem but, the bear started running at a faster pace down the middle of the fr. I then started to slow when suddenly the bear bolted over the downslope and disappeared into the brush. We stopped about 100 yards further down the road and peered over the edge to check him out. The bear was gone. My buddy asked me, what the hell was that? I told him it was a bear. The bear looked like a youngn' who either got shot by a shotgun or got his ass kicked by something else. His side had big round welts on it.

Anyhow, that was the only bear sighting in this neck of the woods.

ps- we passed a road rider making his way up the fr. My buddy asked me if we should of told him about the bear? Naw, he's a roadie!

[boboso]

You did the right thing.. Black Bears are curious and in that area it may be a pass through for him/her and it may be "used" to people noises/smells. Getting in the cab and honking the horn is the best thing in that situation. Still in areas wear bears frequent it is always good to be bear aware (food etc)

At our condo in Mammoth we have learned to alert renters to take out the trash in the late morning or afternoon. We have had a few encounters (nothing serious) with one last year... We arrived around midnight and I stayed with my son (sleeping) and dog in the car while the wife moved stuff into the condo. The dog started acting funny and I heard a "groan" from near a construction dumpster. I could barely make out the shape of a good sized black bear. So others would not "run" into her, I got into the truck, told the wife to stay at the entry and drove over to "honk" at her (thinking she was in the trash). Well she stood up and defended her turf and would not budge. Knowing bears and a bit of nature, something did not sit right, right then she went back to scratching and pacing at the construction dumpster. We called Mammoth PD who have a bear officer and they came out, dropped a flash bang and opened the dumpster. A bear cub came bouncing out and to our surprise the mother came right back around the condo building to collect her youngster and take off back into the woods. I was talking to the caretaker in the morning and he said "oh she was still there, I went out to check in some renters and she jumped at me"!

Though I have been into being a naturalist for years, the animals never cease to amaze me.

[ChrisB]

My moms friend owns a cabin up in snowmass, Co and I have stayed up there several times in the winter. One summer though, about a year ago, they had a momma bear with her 2 cubs get into the house in the middle of the night. Their mom had thought it was the kids coming in late, went downstairs, and realized it wasn't there kids. They got up onto the roof and started banging on the ceiling to try and scare the bears out. Eventually the bears got into the kitchen and so the people who live there were able to open the refidgerator door to block the bears in the kitchen and then opened the back door until the bears finally moved on.

[BAD_S197]

My buddy chris took his MB on the back of his jeep and went to one of the trails here in socal.

He had McDonalds for breakfast and had a couple hash browns and a sausage mcmuffin left over. Put it on his passenger seat and got out and went for a ride.

He came back that afternoon to a bear who had peeled his passenger side door open like it was an orange peel. The bear rummaged around for the bag of grub, waited a few minutes and then ran off.

The damage to the truck wasn't too bad... just a peeled back door and a broken window, ripped up passenger seat and an empty feeling in his wallet...

[J_Sims]

CC and I were riding SART and around a corner we come and all I hear from her is "BEAR" I look up as I am thinking I did not understand what she had said and there standing on all 4's is a good sized bear looking back at us. We both attempt to reach for cameras but by the time they came out the bear goes running away...

truely amazing to see in the wild...

[Pain Freak]

I've been real fortunate to see some real close to where I live. I've seen some in Marshall Canyon. One was a big male and his coloring was almost gold in color. It was a ugly day and looked like it might rain all day, but I needed a ride despertly I was riding along a fireroad and came to a bend, as I came around ther was a huge bear running away from me. I wouldn't even had made a snack for him, but he was running very fast. He kind of just melted into the brush, but I could still hear him crashing thru for a long time. A highlight in my life for sure.

[Endo Verendo]

I hate you. I have yet to see a bear in the wild. I can't even count the times I've come up to some riders who said "hey, we just saw a bear. You just missed it." I wanna see one!!!

[Pain Freak]

Yeah, but I still haven't seen a mountain lion in the wild and this year was the first time I've ever seen a big horn sheep. It was a mature ram, freekin thing had balls that would of made a bull proud.

[CalEpic]

Ran into this fella up in Tahoe this summer.

Tom C and I came around a corner and he was about 20-30 feet from us on the trail. Needless to say we backed away until he decided he was ready to move on. At the time I was a little concerned because I thought black bears were supposed to be black and this guy clearly wasn't. It was very cool to see.

C

[allison]

Cal - that looks like a BIGGUN!!

[Pain Freak]

Black bears can be any color. The one I seen in Marshall Cyn was blond or more like a gold color.

[OMR]

Ran into bears twice at Camp Nelson. Once on the trail a young cub was running next to the road and was startled by my partner and me slowly riding along... the cub heard us and took off (bears can reach speeds of 45 miles an hour... although this one was young). We got the heck out of there as mommy bear was somewhere nearby... adrenaline does funny things... but it does increase speed!

Next night in the campgrounds, several bears were making their way from camp to camp eating as they went. I jumped up and started banging on a pan when the bears came into our camp. One of them bit into the cooler and picked it up like a feather and ran off with it as food tumbled out of it. Luckily, it wasn[t the one with all the beer in it. I still have that cooler complete with dried bear snot & big teeth marks on it.

OMR

[Kid A]

damn, my bad misread. thought said "Beer" encountered. oh well,

Originally Posted by Pain Freak

Black bears can be any color. The one I seen in Marshall Cyn was blond or more like a gold color.

can be any color??? u sure wasn't this guy???

[ghixon]

I've ran across two or three riding at Rim Nordic earlier in the season. The last time was about a month ago. They really didn't seem to be too interested in what I was doing - just looked up and turned the other way. Both encounters were with male brown bears that are common to the area. I always carry a whistle with me on rides on Rim and Area 51 in Fawnskin. According to the forest rangers, the bears in this area are used to seeing and hearing people out and about and yelling at them doesn't do anything but annoy them.

I have a photo of one of them - I'll look for it. He was at the top of the trail at the top of the switchbacks.