Bear encounter

I grew up in Alaska, so you’d think I’d have plenty of good bear tales — and I do. However, I’ve never been closer to a bear (in captivity or the wild) than I was yesterday afternoon.

I hadn’t been out for a ride since being caught out in Saturday’s deluge, so I brought my bike to work hoping I would have a chance to get out and ride up Provo canyon on the Provo river trail.  (For you non-locals: the Provo river trail is a paved parkway that is frequented by day hikers, bikers, rollerbladers, birdwatchers, families with kids on bikes, just about everybody — it’s a well-used and popular trail.) So when the skies finally cleared on Wednesday I took off up the canyon.

I was riding by myself and going pretty quickly up the trail without making a bunch of noise. I came around a small bend in the trail and I saw something give a slight jump off to my right. I looked right into the eyes of a black bear that I had obviously frightened. It was no small bear.

The bear was only five feet off the trail, I swerved to the left and went by the bear before he had time to figure out what to do to me. I passed him within 10 feet. After I rode on by, I kept my eye on him and he kept his eye on me. I looked back again and he was turning back into the woods wandering away (there was no time to take a picture — I was by him in a flash and I wasn’t thinking about stopping).

I saw a hiker on the trail ahead of me by about a quarter of a mile. I pulled up next to him.

“Did you see the bear just back there?” I asked.

“No. A bear?”

“Yeah, a bear,” I replied, “back there by that cement thing right along side of the trail.”

The hiker told me he’d just been sitting on that cement thing taking a short break. My guess is the hiker guy sat there and ate a sandwich or an apple or something, and dropped his leftovers there. The bear started scavenging when the guy started hiking again, and I happened to approach silently and quickly at just the right time. Scary.

I warned other hikers and bikers I came across on the trail, most of whom looked at me like I was nuts. Look, I never expected to encounter a bear along such a heavily visited area of a paved trail, even if it is up in the canyon a ways. I flagged down a city worker a little while later on my ride and told him all about it, and he said he’d report it to the right people.

I’m not sure why the only exciting things in my life happen when I’m out on my bike: I ride right by a bear, I get caught out in a crazy storm, I come across a cougar, I flat out and get stung on the neck. Maybe it’s time to find a new hobby… nah, I’m having way too much fun.