The Nature Center

After my parents left I was feeling a little down so I invited some of my friends to go hiking at The Nature Center here in Eagle River.  Tyler, Natalie, and Ella went with me as well as my friend Emily and her little girl, and my friend Juliette with her 3 kids.  Along the way we would stop and let the kids climb trees or explore.  There was one point were there came a time to make a decision do we keep going straight until we hit the next loop, do we go right and loop back to the visitors center, or do we just turn around and go back the way we came.  At this point we had been hiking for about an hour so we decided to just go right and loop back around to the nature center.  As we were walking Juliette and I were talking about bears and how common they were up in this area and how they sometime close down where we were hiking because the bears are eating the Salmon that are swimming up stream here. 

The next thing I know Juliette has stopped me and is pointing straight ahead. "What is that up there", she asked.  As we all stopped to get a better look I did notice some kind of animal ahead. 

"Is it a dog"? She continues.  As those words leave her mouth a good sized black bear steps onto the path ahead of us about 50 yards away.

Juliette takes charge and tells us all to not turn but back away.  Juliette and I automatically put our hands in the air and are backing away at the same time Emily is turned around quick stepping it back to her little girl who is currently crying. "Emily walk. Don't turn your back" a warning coming from Juliette which is not heeded by Emily at all as she continues to quickly hustle toward her little girl.

Thankfully the size of our group and the crying baby gave the bear fair warning of us and the bear turns back off the path and walks somewhere off into the woods. 

We do slowly head back towards the visitors center.  Let me tell you this.  It is quite the stressful journey walking in the woods with so many little kids and coming across a bear.  Something that I do not want to do again.  I am grateful that I got the experience of seeing the bear and can appreciate the necessity of staying away from it.  But the next time I see one I would like it to be from the comfort of my car. 

When we originally arrived to the visitors center we saw a sign on the door stating that there was a mama black bear with two baby cubs in the nature center somewhere and to please let the visitors center know if you run into one of them.  As we arrived back to the visitors center, my heart was still beating super fast and I was so happy to be back there.  When I told them about the bear you know what they said?  They said "I am so glad that you got to have that experience of seeing a bear in the wild".  I felt panic and all I could think was "You're so glad? You're so glad I got the experience?  I was chased and almost mauled by a black bear.  I am not so glad that I had that experience".  Of course I knew that that didn't happen but I felt like it could have.