Trail Encounter

Day 307: While hiking out of Sunrise yesterday, a call came over my radio that a bear cub had been sighted in Berkeley Park with the mother nowhere to be seen. People in the area were advised to give it a wide berth and to be on the lookout for mom. Bears in the Park are not normally aggressive, but a sow protecting her offspring is another story. Getting between mama and a cub is not a good idea! Since I was only planning to go as far as Lodi Creek (the point at which the trail takes a bend after descending from the intersection with the Skyscraper Pass trail), I figured there was no chance I'd encounter the bear. Berkeley was a mile or so beyond my projected turn-around point, and the likelihood of a bear covering that distance in the span of time it would take me to reach the creek was minimal. In fact, I did not see a bear en route to the creek. I found it on my return, approximately half a mile above Lodi Corner. Given time and distance, I suspect this was a second cub, and (s)he was thoroughly engrossed in eating wildflowers as I approached.

It has to be said that I have had more bear encounters in the Berkeley Park area than anywhere else in the Park. Several years ago, I rounded a cluster of trees and was startled to see a sow about 50 feet away (as near as I'd ever been to a bear in the wild), chomping on a mouthful of plants. This little cub was somewhat closer than that. I spoke in a normal tone of voice to alert him/her to my presence. (S)he looked toward me and went back to eating. I put in a radio call so that rangers above me could warn any other hikers entering the area that a cub had been sighted (but not mama), and as I moved slowly forward, the youngster showed a little more curiosity about me, raising his/her head and taking a few steps in my direction, acting as if (s)he might approach me more closely for a sniff. I said firmly, "I don't think you want to do that, bear," and took a few more steps toward the cub. It rewarded me by turning its head away and grudgingly moving to concealment behind a rock. I passed without event, eyes scanning both sides of the trail for any sign of mom.

I later learned that visitors had reported seeing an adult bear near Skyscraper Pass in the morning, but the Sunrise rangers believe that the mother has cut the apron strings and that the cub(s) are now on their own, "learning how to be bears." Had she been in the area, the sow's maternal instincts might have kicked into gear if she'd seen me as a threat to her offspring, but for today, it was just Cubby and I, both enjoying a cool walk in the subalpine meadows above Berkeley Park.