Bear encounter

I have been trying to do a hike every day after work. Now that it gets dark early and since I'm working long hours, it means that all of my hikes are done the majority in darkness.

Last night I had an interesting encounter with a bear on Mount Royal. I had seen a bear at almost the same location back on July 26, not long before sunset. It was where the big switchback is about halfway up the mountain. As usual, the bear scurried off through the bushes and trees.

Last night's bear encounter was different. This time, it was completely dark and I was descending by headlamp. When I encountered the bear, he or she was only about six feet away and I didn't notice the bear until then. He or she backed up only a few feet into the bushes and simply looked at me (or just the headlamp) and didn't move after backing up a few feet. I like bears, but have to admit the glowing eyes were a little spooky since the bear just looked at me or the headlamp and never scurried off. I backed away slowly and headed down the mountain, but the bear never did move until I was out of sight.

With the exception of parts of Alaska, this was the only bear encounter (out of many) I have had where the bear didn't scurry off and is also the closest I have ever gotten to a bear. I would assume that the bear didn't scurry off because he or she was curious about the headlamp, but I'm not sure about this. I do wonder why the bear didn't scurry off this time and why it allowed me to (accidentally) get so close (I was unaware of the bear until I was six feet or so away, but he or she would have had to see me or at least the headlamp before getting so close. The bear wasn't acting aggressive in any way.

Has anyone else had a similar encounter?

I've had some bare encounters before, but never any bear encounters...

That's cool, part of me has always hoped of coming upon a bear, but only if I was filming, and only if it was on the downhill section of the bike ride so I could get the hell out of there.

Were you alone? Do you recall how noisy you were, or were you pretty quiet?

There are bears up in the Snowbasin area where we ride, but I assume the noise keeps them down. Then again, the noise should keep the mountain lions away, but my buddy Dave has had 2 encounters in the same year while mountain biking.

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Originally Posted by rockgremlin

I've had some bare encounters before, but never any bear encounters...

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Let me tell you about these hot springs in Ogden Canyon

I got chased by a bear while I was riding my mtn, bike up AF Canyon 2 summers ago. Crazy experience. I've never seen one at night though. That would really freak me out I think. Last summer (2016) I was actually the chaser as I chased 2 mtn. lions, on my bike, for about 15 yards down the trail in front of me.

...a few summers ago I also had a bobcat jump out of a tree (I didn't know he was above me), over my shoulder and landed on the trail a foot in front of my front tire. Then there was the wild tom turkey who attacked me 2 springs ago while I was up the canyon trying to do some trail work. I've had some crazy wild animal encounters over the years but, of course, because I've religiously ridden with my GoPro this past summer, I've had zero.

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Originally Posted by tallsteve

Last summer (2016) I was actually the chaser as I chased 2 mtn. lions, on my bike, for about 15 yards down the trail in front of me.

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:eek2: :eek2: :eek2: Dang! You got a death wish?

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Were you alone? Do you recall how noisy you were, or were you pretty quiet?

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I was alone and was quiet. Still, the bear must have seen the headlamp l9ng before I saw him or her.

This is a very popular trail, but I have never seen anyone else up there at night, so the bear had probably seen few headlamps before.

I've often wondered what animals think of when they see a light moving in the darkness, if they think that means there's a human there, or if they just see it as some strange moving star.

I think this is why so many deer get hit on the road, they see the lights but they don't realize a light in the night means there's a huge metal object approaching. They just think it's a moving light, and have no scale to indicate how close it is or what is associated with these lights. They're on a hard floor surface and they see lights moving around in the darkness, they've got no idea it means death.

Maybe if the vehicles were illuminated more, so the animals could see the actual body of the vehicle approaching them, then they'd get out of the way.

My experience indicates that most animals are not bothered by head lamps, personal or attached to a vehicle. I would think the bear would have smelled you and realized what you were without associating it with a head lamp.

My buddy has a theory on deer. Very few make it back to the herd to let the others know it's not going to end well. :roflol:

I've run into plenty of Bear, mostly between the Pahvant and Tushar ranges. In *ALL* instances, the Bears could care less that I was within ~20 feet or so of them and in almost all instances, they just sat there staring at me. Brown bears are the predominant species in those areas.

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Brown bears are the predominant species in those areas.

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I assume you mean black? :ne_nau: There aren't any brown bears in Utah outside the zoo.