THEIR FIRST BEAR ENCOUNTER

The next morning they had Al with them. 

This is where George saw the bear.  They went the way Al showed them.  They were going wrong, so they went another way to get up on the ridge.  When they cut across is where they saw the bear.  All three saw the bear. Al was yelling, “hi bear, go away bear.”  Dave was trying to take a picture.  George yelled out and announced the bear had a cub with her.  “A cute little thing,” he said.  Al was ahead of them and was closest to the bear but couldn’t really see the bear due to the trees.  In less than a minute the bear got directly behind George when he turned he saw her coming out of the trees.  Geo was reaching for the camera in his pocket but it was catching on his coat.  The bear had a nice slow walk coming toward George as he was still tugging to get his camera.  It didn’t stop and he decided maybe he should get his gun instead.  He was about 75 feet away and George and the bear locked eyes.  She stopped and sat up on her haunches and just stared at George. Dave got one picture as George and the bear stared at each other for about 1 minute.  He said she tilted her head one way sniffing and then the other.  They were relieved when she bear just went down and headed off.  It happened so quickly.  He said the bear was a beautiful, shiny black, mama bear.  “Black as the Ace of spades.”  I asked if they were scared and he said they weren’t but didn’t really have time to be.  He was a little nervous and said he would have hated to shoot her.  George was actually closer than the picture shows because Dave is the one that got the winning shot.  After that they got back to business cutting brush.