Me, And A Bear In The Woods
Three of us were parked in the middle of Skyline Drive to look at a black bear mama worry over her cub up in a tree. A man from Maine passing by from the opposite direction made sure to let us know that a female with her cub will rip your guts out if you get too close, but as all of us were seconds away from the protection of our vehicles I found the advice to be not all that warranted under these specific circumstances. I was more concerned about being rear ended so I looked behind me to see two gown wrapped Buddhist monks in a rented Chevy also taking pictures. The one Buddhist monk flung a frisbee-like biscuit between the mother and baby, with a precision so precise that I was made to wonder is playing frisbee with bears a part of some Buddhist ritual of which I am unaware. I am not one to give advice to monks so I did not say do not feed the bears. I just smiled at the younger monk and got back in the Jeep and drove home. I had passed an adolescent bear walking along the rock wall guard rail just moments earlier but did not stop because I did not want to be one of those tourists I scoff at who stop in the middle of the road when there is a deer alongside it. Oh-My-Gawd, a deer, I will say while passing the gawking motorists on the two lane winding mountain road, to return home in time to see a half dozen deer munching on the newly planted landscaping, marmots in trees, foxes in marmot holes, geese on the pond, an occasional bald eagle in the sky, and cats thought dead on my back porch. American Black Bears, while fairly common throughout large swaths of this country, are not something you see that often, and so I was glad to have the opportunity to be stuck in the mini traffic jam with camera handy.
I had been on a hike to research fishing holes and was now driving back and only minutes away from popping the top on the Guinness full strength in a bottle which I was carrying in my small pack, along with the camera and some cashews and some paper towels for the emergency cleanup which may be necessary if you go far out into the woods after a week of dosing on coarsely ground psyllium.
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