Bear Aware

Setting: Grand Teton National Park

So let me just start off right to the point. I am terrified of bears. Like, scared to death of them. I attribute this to two of my guilty pleasure movies: ‘Brother Bear’ and ‘Snow Dogs.’ It’s the scene where the mom bear stands on her hind legs in Brother Bear, and the scene where Cuba Gooding Jr. gets chased by the grizzly in Snow Dogs. It’s not the kind of terror where like anything that has to do with bears scares me; I loved bear stuffed animals growing up, and Randy even bought me a silver bear paw necklace that I love. It’s just the possibility of ever encountering a bear that terrifies me. And in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks, this is a very valid fear.

I recently fell in love with hiking. To get ready for this summer, I wanted to try hiking out so I got some nice boots from L.L. Bean and some hiking pants. First time hiking was in Starved Rock, IL, with some friends, and I realized the boots make me feel invincible, like my feet can conquer anything. Plus it’s a great workout. I couldn’t wait to try them out when Randy and I got to the parks, and on our second day in the Tetons, we decided to go hike on a trail. We stopped at one of the visitor centers, because they recommend you ask a ranger which trails to check out – in case you need to be more bear aware than usual or like if any landslides happened and the trail is not actually there anymore. The ranger told us about a nice, easy one around Jenny Lake that would take about 3 hours or so. So we planned on that one, but made a quick stop to the gift store in the center first.

Well, when we were checking out, Randy nonchalantly asked the cashier which trails she liked best, and she told us about this one that is about 20 minutes from where we were that had a steeper incline, called Death Canyon, that was about 3 hours also. And since Randy and I were really full of ourselves (“we can totally do a harder trail, we don’t have to start out on a flat trail”) we decided to take her advice. What she didn’t tell us was that Death Canyon, while really beautiful, is a pretty isolated trail which trailheads about 3 miles off any paved road. You literally drive on a gravel road for like 2 miles before you get to a parking lot by the trailhead. But there were enough other cars where we thought it was pretty popular and everything.

When we started out, it was clear skies and sunny. About 10 minutes into the hike, a Yellowstone “afternoon roller” (daily afternoon thunderstorms) came through. Now I thought hiking in the sun was fun. But there is something truly liberating about hiking in a forest during a rainstorm. All your cares about your appearance go out the window and you just focus on the feel of the cool rain on your skin and the smell of the forest takes over, and all you hear are the raindrops hitting the trees and the sound that the mountain stream makes when it gurgles past. The minute you stop caring about not being dry, you feel yourself be freed.

One thing you do not think of while you’re focusing on being free and the rain on your skin and the sound of the forest, however, is that bears, too, like the rain. Maybe it cools them down, or maybe they feel free too.

About 20 minutes after it started raining, Randy and I came up around a slight bend in the trail, and there, about 30 feet in front of us, is a black bear. We both saw it at about the same time, and I say, “That’s a bear,” and Randy says, “That’s not a bear,” and I say, “Swear to God that’s a bear,” and I take off back down the path, carrying the backpack with all the bear spray and most other defense tools we had brought with us. We joked later that my theory was that as long as I could outrun Randy, I’d be fine. When I stop about 15 feet down and look back, Randy and the bear are just staring at each other and then Randy comes down after me. He said later that the bear saw him but apparently wasn’t interested in what he saw. So that’s how our 3 hour hike turned into a 1 hour hike.

On the way down, we ran into two people from Oregon who were heading up that way, and we let them know that the bear was up the path. They looked hesitant to turn back until we asked if they had brought bear spray, which they hadn’t. So we gained strength in numbers on the way down, which made me feel better. The park suggests groups of 3 or more hikers – I guess so the bear has more menu options?

I’m not about to tell you how I faced my biggest fear, survived, and now I no longer am scared of bears. It’d make a meaningful blog – haha- but that would be a big fat lie – the rest of our hikes through the Tetons and Yellowstone we made sure we could tag along with another group if the trail was more isolated and made loud sounds before every corner so that we wouldn’t surprise any bear. Now that seeing a bear is not just a possibility but actually happened and is something that can happen again, I’m even more hesitant to go on isolated trails. All I could say after we saw it, was at least it was just a black bear and not a grizzly. Grizzly bears are more aggressive and more powerful. Black bears tend to be more curious than anything.

They say getting over your fear is one of the greatest feats you can ever accomplish. And I can acknowledge that my fear is somewhat silly – we have bear spray and know how to use it, and we know to make sounds around corners because most bear attacks happen because the bear is startled, and we know to talk in a monotone voice, avoid eye contact, and back away slowly – even knowing we would be aware of how to handle something like that, I’m still beary scared of bears.