Monday, February 11, 2008

Bear!!!


South of the Denali Hwy on the Parks

So there I was. Not to long after helping those ladies change the tire on their Escalade, but much wetter. Shortly after the end of the Denali Highway I was headed South on the Parks to Talkeetna when the sky opened up and started raining cats and dogs. Bears too apparently!

I was cold, wet, and focused on my destination. Tucked behind the tiny windshield going about 65 I came around the corner and saw the biggest black bear that I'd ever seen. And it was getting bigger as I got closer!

Hand full of clutch, locked up the rear and thinking to myself that I should go easy on the front so I don't go down on the wet pavement. Right when I got stopped the bear lumbered back into the woods most likely just as startled as I was.

Proceeding cautiously I kept an eye on the woods to catch a glimpse as I passed by but didn't see anything. When I was a comfortable distance from my first encounter I stopped to see if it would try and cross the road again so I could snap a picture. Just when I was about to leave I could see it come out of the woods in one of my mirrors. After a quick U-turn I was able to get the two pictures above.

For some scale I would guess that the shoulder is probably 6 feet wide.

This was the only bear I saw on my travels that summer.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I hope we see a bear on our trip! That would be so cool!

Brian D. said...

There is actually a few Bear threads going on in Great White North right now. One even about gummi bears!