My Bear Encounter, What It Taught Me About Life

Some moments just stick with you forever! This bear encounter was one of those moments.

I was sixteen and we were spending our family vacation in Maine. This was pretty normal for us, and I usually enjoyed it. To be honest I enjoyed this one too, and I wound up with a story that has influenced me for much of my life. When it started though, I’ll admit I was a bit perturbed, and that was over a boy. This trip hadn’t been planned much in advance, and I wasn’t going to be home for our regularly scheduled phone call. I wasn’t able to let him know either. (Yeah, this was definitely pre-cellphone days!)

This bear encounter happened pre-cellphone!

Now that I’ve grown and been running my own household I sometimes look back and wish I could be as spontaneous again. Ok, maybe soon since they are growing up. But I digress…

Anyway, I’ve mentioned where my frugality came from? It came from the awesome moments my dad made happen with next to nothing to work with. This one happened in a campground on Maine on papermill land. (Camping there was free by the way.)

Adventure and teen angst.

After a long drive from Vermont into the backcountry in Maine my dad parked our van and we set up the tent. Once we finished I decided to take a walk. I was more than ready for some time to myself. I was always pretty independent. It was time for some quiet reflection and some alone time.

I chose to follow a little path I discovered off the “road” to more camp sites. It may need clarifying now that even the road would barely be considered traversable by most people now. I’d call it a class 4 road. My maternal grandmother would barely have considered it a walking path. This was definitely back woods! I took the trail that probably had more animals follow than people, and It wasn’t early in the day. I meandered and listened to the birds in the background while I had a Walkman over one ear. The sun filtered through the trees at a shallow angle. I noted some tracks that weren’t familiar to me immediately.

Be aware of your surroundings. Not fearful, just aware

I looked around, and kind of wondered if they could be mountain lion? Maybe bear? They were large. I noticed the shadows were getting longer. I listened and looked around. I’d always wanted to see a mountain lion, recognized that meeting one here could get sketchy. I figured my best bet was just keeping my eyes open. I didn’t see any signs of immediate danger, so I continued my walk- maybe with a bit more attention to my surroundings but in all honesty I lived in the woods so I wasn’t much more concerned than normal. With the exception of a large cat (like a mountain lion) I felt pretty prepared. A bear wouldn’t be stalking me, and as long as either I saw them first, or we both saw each with enough space between us, I’d likely be just fine. (remember this is the east coast- no grizzly or polar bears here)

I did head back to our campsite as the shadows got long though. I was hungry and I had no interest in meeting whatever belonged to those tracks in the dark.

Back to “civilization.” Well where most bear encounters happen, the fringe between civilization and nature.

As I arrived at the campsite it was time to set up bedding in the tent. We had our dinner and debated sleeping in the van. It was more comfortable with a mattress in the van. I generally loved sleeping out in a tent, but this time I had a feeling. Oddly my sister wanted the tent. She also wanted to eat in the tent. I drew the line with leaving food in there with us. (Food in a tent is always a bad idea!)

Being the kid I was I did carry a knife regularly when camping so I brought that in with me. I left my shoes outside though, no one wanted to smell those! I left them carefully placed, directly outside the tent.

Quiet moments of introspection

As it got darker my sister’s chatting got quiet, and I lay there quietly listening to the party going on across the campground. It’s always taken me a long while to fall asleep and that evening was not unpleasant. Their music was good, and it sounded like they were having a good time with their bonfire. I kind of wished I could join them. Instead I was stuck there, in the tent with my little sister. (Yup. I was around 16…)

For the most part though I just lay there enjoying the evening. The party across the field started dying down and I was still not particularly sleepy. I lay there quietly thinking about who knows what. I listened to the quiet peacefully. Slowly I caught a sound that seemed different somehow.  Maybe it was a raccoon? Something shuffling around outside. No, It was bigger than a raccoon… what was that? It was definitely coming closer. Then I knew beyond a doubt what belonged to those tracks I’d seen. I was listening to a bear approach our campsite.

Think ahead-most of the time and you can avoid an encounter turning bad

You can’t imagine how thankful I was in that moment that I’d insisted on the fries going inside the van! I lay there just hoping beyond hope that my sister didn’t start snoring at that moment. (She snored like a chainsaw- or a bear… every night that’s how I knew for sure when she was asleep.) For once she had actually stopped snoring. Waking her up to keep her quiet was a quickly discarded idea as waking her would result in many, loud questions.

I lay there aware that most likely It would just pass through the site when it realized there wasn’t anything interesting there as long as it stayed quiet in the tent. I gripped my knife under my pillow tighter and listened some more. That’s when I heard a soft sort of gruffeling. There was another sound too. Something smaller shuffling behind as the bear inspected our site, and it was squawking (or mewling?) back… Then everything clicked and I realized the confusion in the tracks earlier. It was two tracks overlapping, and this was a mother and her cub!

Don’t mess with a momma bear and her cub, but don’t panic either- Just because she can be dangerous doesn’t mean she will be- She doesn’t want to fight either

Even before I was a mother myself I knew you do NOT mess with a mother bear and her cub. As I lay there in the dark, listening to her sniff around the camp, practically tripping over a tent stake, I could just make out her shape as a shadow from the remnants of the partiers fire through the tent wall ever so faintly. I distinctly recall the feeling of her cub sniffing and snuffling at the other end of our little two-person tent near my head.  She found nothing and wandered back into the woods. She didn’t even bother going toward the more communal area of the campground. Just headed back into the woods calling her baby.

Her baby wasn’t ready to leave though. He or she snuffled around for what seemed like ages to me and grunted back at mom. Honestly if I wasn’t so focused on not making any noise, gripping the only defense I had, and hoping my sister didn’t wake up, or start snoring it would have been pretty entertaining! I didn’t have to see the cub to picture him talking back to his mom. The tent walls were entirely too thin that night though! Adrenaline made the task of laying still nearly impossible!

Finally, a sigh of relief! (Sort of…)

Finally, as he (or she) reluctantly followed mom away I did wake my sister with the international sign for BE QUIET (My finger pressed to my lips, and then my hand over her mouth). I told her what happened as quietly as I could. Of course after all that adrenaline I was finally exhausted. Now the encounter with a bear was over my sister was wide awake, wanting to get out of the tent to go in the van. I just wanted to sleep and knew the danger had passed. Of course, we piled into the van.

As we got out I didn’t grab my shoes, but the next morning they showed the evidence of how close I had been to the pair. Mama bear had moved my shoes when she was close enough for my foot to be buried in fur if not for the thin fabric of the tent. That’s how close our encounter had been!

Life’s lessons from my bear encounter have stood the test of time

As terrified as I was during that bear encounter I learned something about myself and the best way to handle an unpredictable situation. First, take deep breaths and don’t react without considering your next steps. Taking those breaths allows you to think before doing something that would potentially make your situation worse. Second, be reasonably prepared for your surroundings. (In the woods it’s wise to carry something sharp). Sometimes it does more good to quietly observe before taking action. But of course be ready to protect yourself if needed. I learned that night that I could in fact face a bear and stay calm- well alert, but my thoughts were pretty well organized. Sometimes staying still is harder than taking action. Just be prepared to take action and you’ll feel calmer!

If you enjoyed this post go check out Silver Lake- A Day’s Adventure! This was an adventure from after I started taking photography a bit more seriously.