Hey Tribe,
The bear was right in front of me and I couldn’t even see
it. Keep that in mind as you read my
tale of another encounter with Ursus americanus.
A beautiful day deserves a beautiful hike. TheRocketScientist invited me to join him and
his two dogs for a hike along Turnagain Arm trail, which has scenic views of
Cook Inlet and the Chugach Mountains.
Who could say no to that? Fly
spent the day at work with me and then, after work, she and I drove over to
TheRocketScientist’s house where we climbed into his truck and headed south
down the highway: enjoying the warm summer sunshine and the knowledge that the
sun wouldn’t set for several hours.
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| See what I mean? |
We parked at the McHugh trailhead and set off down, or
rather up, the trail towards Rainbow Creek, about 4 miles away.
The trail parallels the highway, which
parallels Turnagain Arm (the famous dead-end channel that Captain Cook’s crew
navigated while trying to find the
Northwest Passage and had to turn around again, poor fellows); the narrow trail climbs above the
highway to a dizzying height and at a few sections clings to the side of the
mountain with a narrow margin for hiker error.
Dall’s Sheep are a common sight in this area and frequently
cause motoring tourists to suddenly brake and swerve to the side of the road
for souvenir photos of the ghostly cliff dwellers. Fly, leading our merry group, ran headlong
into one of the sheep while it was grazing on some summer grass. Both were surprised and not sure what to make
of the other. A staring contest ensued
as both sized up each other, before the sheep stamped a front hoof in
brazenness and darted over the edge of the cliff. We gasped and hastily carefully made
our way to the edge and peered over, looking for our daring friend. It was safe, of course, standing with its
herd - which was looking at us with judgy expressions. Apparently, they resented our presence up
there in their rocky domain.
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| Hello friend. |
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| Where'd he go? |
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| Hey guys, don't mind us, just passing through. |
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| Fly gives her best sheep impression. |
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| A wildfire swept through this section last year. |
Then the trail led us down into the dense woods. The trail was deep and overgrown with grasses
and cow parsnip. I couldn’t see Fly in
front of me, as we waded our way along the trail and occasionally couldn’t see
TheRocketScientist either.
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| Terrible photo, but look at that happy face! |
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| TheRocketScientist and three dogs are standing there...somewhere. |
It was cool and quiet in the woods and we were the only ones
on the trail. Or so we thought. About a half-mile from Rainbow Creek, we
encountered a sow black bear and her large cub that were coming down the trail
in the opposite direction. We were
mutually surprised and our group jumped back in alarm as the sow hustled her
cub up a nearby tree. In fact, I
couldn’t even see the bears until finally spotting the tree climber, but
there’s no mistaking the sounds a bear makes when thundering through the woods
in close proximity to me. Fly’s whole
being was electrocuted with energy as she got a scent and visual confirmation
of her natural enemy. She stood in front
of me, at the ready, and I stood with my hand on her collar after un-clasping
the leash. We were braced for an attack,
should the sow charge us. Happily, Momma
was content to simply glare menacingly at us in defiance. I am loathe to let Fly get in a tussle with a
momma bear, so I was happy with her decision. The dogs barked their anger as
TheRocketScientist and I assessed the situation. Clearly, we were not going any further, so we
slowly backed our way down the trail a few paces before feeling safe enough to
turn our backs on the bears and retrace our steps. TheRocketScientist and his
pups led the way and Fly brought up the rear, unwilling to turn her back on the
enemy until we were a goodly distance away.
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| So close to Rainbow. |
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| Brave Fly. |
It was probably a good thing that we turned around when we
did, from a timing standpoint, because the park locks the gate at 9:00pm and we
had to hustle to return to the parking lot before the truck was locked in for
the night.
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| 8:45pm, if you can believe it in the Land of the Midnight Sun. |
We didn’t reach our intended destination, blocked a mere
half mile from our goal, but the evening had been filled with adventure and
beautiful Alaskan views, so I was happy with our 7 mile excursion.
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