“The Bear at the Mountain”
A woman is an avid hiker and has been hiking different trails in the Pacific Northwest for a number of years. On the weekends, she visits parks in the area and walks along the trails. Many of the parks offer a variety of trails and she likes to try different ones.
She purchases a lot of her supplies at the same store and knows a number of the people who work at the store. Many of the store clerks are avid hikers as well and often ask her about which parks she visits. On one of her visits, she learns of a park that has a small mountain you can climb. When she returns home, she looks at the park’s website to learn more about it.
The park has a number of trails. A few of the trails can be used to climb to the top of the mountain. The park is several hours away from her home, but she decides to make the longer drive to try the trails.
She leaves early in the morning, but by the time she arrives to the park, it’s usually around 10 or 11 am. Most of the trails to the top of the mountain take several hours, and there often is not enough time to make it down from the mountain before it starts to get dark. Given the time constraint, she tends to walk along the trails that go around the mountain.
As she hikes along the trail, she often sees other hikers carrying large backpacks and other camping gear. The park offers a number of camping sites along the trails, and she starts to consider the idea of camping out so she can climb the trails up the mountain.
On one of her visits to the store where she purchases her hiking supplies, she spends some time looking at the camping gear. With the help of a salesperson, she buys a number of camping supplies including a large backpack and a pop-up tent. She also buys a book for beginner campers and reads it to help her prepare for camping in the park.
On her next visit to the park, she plans to hike up one of the trails to the mountain beginning on Saturday morning, sleep at one of the camping sites on Saturday night, finish the climb by mid-day on Sunday, and climb back down the mountain so she completes the trail by the end of the day.
While she is looking forward to camping at one of the camp sites, she is somewhat unprepared about what to expect. The large backpack is heavy and she is not used to carrying so much weight. It slows her down, and she needs to make frequent stops.
At around 6 pm, she reaches a campsite and finds an area where she can set-up her tent and supplies. She goes to sleep early as she is very tired from walking along the trail, and wants to get up early the following day so she can finish the climb up the mountain. In the middle of the night, she wakes up as she hears a scratching noise on the side of the tent. She thinks it might be from a small animal. The following day she reaches the top of the mountain and makes the climb down. Climbing and camping at the mountain quickly becomes a frequent weekend activity.
On one of her visits, she decides to try one of the more remote trails. She reaches a campsite at the end of the day. Unlike the other campsites, there are not a lot of other campers. She has developed a false sense of security in terms of her camping abilities, and it does not deter her. She continues setting up her tent and supplies instead of going to another, more populous, campsite.
In the middle of the night, she once again hears a scratching noise. Her tent is located near a large park light which casts a shadow of a large animal on the side of the tent. The woman is terrified. She does not know what to do. She is afraid the animal will try to enter the tent. She tucks herself into her sleeping bag hoping the animal will go away. She can hear it walking around outside as its paws make a crunching noise as they step along the ground.
She listens for it for around thirty minutes. She is not sure if it is still in the area, but is too scared to open the tent to check around for it. She eventually falls asleep. She makes sure to avoid the more remote trails on her next visits to the park.
After visiting the park for about six months, she sits down at the edge of the trail after completing a difficult passage. She stops to have something to eat and drink. She hears a rustling noise, and looks behind her. She sees a large bear about 30 feet away. She is terrified. She quickly gets up, grabs her backpack and begins trotting away as quickly as she can. She is afraid the bear will attack her, and is too scared to look behind her.
She walks as quickly as she can for several minutes. She turns her head around quickly to see if it is following. She doesn’t see it, but continues to look behind her every so often in case it follows her. The interaction with the bear scared her and she decides to leave the park that day instead of camping at one of the campsites.
The interaction with the bear makes the visits to the park a little less attractive, as she is now concerned about running into bears as she walks along the various trails. A few months go by before she decides to return to the park.
As she is walking along a trail, she sees a bear ahead of her. It is making its way from the trees and looks as if it is heading towards entering the trail. She freezes. The bear looks in her direction and sees her, and quickly runs away back into the forest area. She is somewhat relieved. The bear seems to be as scared of her as she is scared of it.
Over the next few months, she continues to have interactions with the bear every once in a while. It seems to appear after she finishes difficult passages. It usually looks like it is - 2- making its way towards somewhere as she happens to be in its vicinity. For instance, if she finishes climbing up a rocky area, she may see it making its way into the forest area.
As she continues her visits to the park, she starts to look for the bear. She doesn’t always see it. It tends to be a rare occurrence. On one of her visits, she hikes along a trail that goes around a small lake. It’s a hot day, and she goes to the side of the lake. She takes her socks and shoes off, rolls up the bottom of her pants, and steps into side of the lake where there is shallow water to cool down.
She looks out across the lake to enjoy the view, and turns her head. She sees the bear off to the side. It is finishing drinking water from the lake. As the bear finishes drinking water, it looks up and notices her. They seem to look at each other for a moment before the bear leaves and makes its way back into the forest area.
After that point, she continues to see the bear on her visits to the park. They seem to occur more frequently. To her, the bear seems to appear after she completes difficult passages. On a few occasions, it seems to follow distantly behind her for a few miles before it makes its way back into the forest.
On one visit, she is walking along a trail that eventually leads to a stream. To cross the stream, there are large rocks that you can step on until you reach the other side. As she walks along the trail, the bear appears ahead of her. The bear acts uncharacteristically. It seems to be pacing up ahead of her from side to side. She is not sure what to make of the bear’s behavior. As she gets closer to it, it disappears into the forest. When the woman reaches the stream, she sees the water is too deep to cross. She turns around and takes the trail that will take her back down the mountain.
A few months later, the woman is walking along a trail she has never tried before. She reaches a marked fork area. There are two trails that can be followed. The trail on the righthand side is known to be easier and she plans to take it. As she reaches the fork, the bear appears. Once again, it seems to be behaving uncharacteristically. It seems slightly agitated and is yowling. It begins walking along the trail on the left-hand side. It stops, turns around to look for the woman, and begins yowling. It walks a few more steps. Then, once again turns around to look for the woman, and yowls. The bear disappears into the forest.
The woman is not sure what to make of the bear’s behavior. She recalls that the last time the bear acted that way was when the water on the stream was too deep to cross. She thinks the bear may be trying to warn her about something. She tries to think about what the bear is trying to communicate. As she approaches the fork, the bear once again returns. It looks at her, and turns around. It takes a few steps, and turns around to look at her again. She is puzzled by the bear’s behavior. It seems to be trying to tell her something. It occurs to her - that it seems to want her to follow as it keeps looking back at her. She starts to wonder if there is something wrong with the trail on the right-hand side of the trial. Although it is more difficult, she decides to take the trail on the left-hand side of the fork.
The trail on the left-hand side is less frequently traveled, and harder to decipher at times. She does her best to follow it. She eventually reaches a clearing and the trail turns into a dirt road. She sees the bear up ahead. When she reaches the place where the bear was, she sees a brown sign that says “Bear Cave” with an up arrow.
By the signage, she knows that if she leaves the trail, and follows the path behind the sign, it will take her to a bear cave. She decides to take the rocky and remote path up a hill so she can look inside the bear cave. After making the small climb, she reaches the outside of a small cave. There is a small placard that says “Big Foot Lived Here”. She goes inside the cave, and there is a small exhibit about Big Foot. She spends some time looking at thepictures and reading the information.
She eventually leaves the cave and makes her way down the hill to return to the trail. She realizes the bear was trying to tell her about the cave. She turns around to head back towards the fork as she plans to go back to the entrance area and will finish the climb up the mountain using the right-hand side of the trail.
From that point on her visits to the mountain are less frequent, as she has other commitments, and doesn’t have as much time to make the trips, but she will never forget the bear at the mountain. She realizes it must have been the bear that scratched on her tent that first night and that it seemed to be on the lookout for her as well on her visits offering camaraderie or warning her about potential dangers or in the park.