My first bear encounter

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I was camping in northwestern PA while on a motorcycle trip the other day. At about 10:00 I turned in, and almost immediately I heard something moving around in the woods. I figured it was raccoons or something until this big shadow moved across my tent. I sat up and looked out the door and there was a pretty big black bear just standing there about eight feet away, between me and my bike! It looked around for a moment, and then moved on to a much messier campsite a short distance away.

I wanted to snap a picture, but I don't know much about bears and I wasn't sure how it would react if I startled it. I didn't feel like I was in any danger, but my cooking gear was in a luggage case on the bike, and I was afraid it would tear my bike apart. I slept pretty lightly the rest of the night and kept an emergency whistle nearby in case I needed to frighten it off, but it didn't return.

The creepy thing was that it was clearly watching and waiting for me to turn in so it could scope out my camp!
 
Cool ass. I've never seen one in the wild. I'd have been cautious too. Glad nothing happened.
 
that must have been scary...

i saw a big black bear about 20 feet away in the woods behind the house once, but i don't know if that counts...scared me pretty good anyways.

cool story though.
 
I've come across a few black bears in my travels...If it helps you sleep.. he waited till you turned in because he was afraid of you...If he didn't wait than that's a problem.
 
Neat! Our home borders State Forest, name the animal and we have them. The coyotes starting singing a few days ago. Bears pass through all the time. We love it here. Thanks.
 
there was just an article about bear spray in the latest field and stream bear spray would help me sleep easier
 
You probably could have taken a picture, if anything it would have run away if you startled it. But, better safe than sorry I guess. Now if it was a brown/grizzly, then I would say, definitely don't take a picture and risk scaring it.

Black bears - run when scared

Brown bears - charge when scared
(At least that's what I've been told)

Pretty cool experience though, I just met my first bear the end of last year.
 
You were a lot cooler then I would have been. I would have been shakeing so much that my .40 would have most likely fallen out of my hands when I reached for it.
 
I have seen them do the same thing also up at Ricketts Glen State Park. It happened the same way it did to you. It was scary and I couldn't believe how quiet it was walking around. Or maybe I was so scared the blood was rushing through my ear and I couldn't hear it. It was definitely a adrenaline rush to see one up that close, instead of from afar.
 
I was hunting hogs a couple of years ago and I heard something big coming through the bushes about 8-10 feet away from me so I leveled off and waited for what i thought was a hog. It turned out to be a medium sized black bear. I just stayed still with my rifle at the ready and watched him. He never saw me but I think he caught my scent because he got out of there in a hurry after a about 10 seconds. That was the closest I've ever been to a bear in the wild.
 
Bears scare me. I would never go into bear country without a big gun. I ain't Davy Crockett. They can take your head off with one swipe. You did well. Glad you're ok.
 
Almost all a black bears thoughts are on food. They have a much better sense of smell than dogs.Keep your cooking area far from your tent .Don't sneak food into your tent.They rarely attack.
 
Glad to hear it worked out the best for you.

Sounds like you made the right move not snapping a pic of it.
 
i have never seen a bear in the wild personally, but i know that it is probably a good thing that you didnt take a picture.
 
I startled one of these fellas on I think the Blue Ridge when my grandpa and I were hiking there about 8 years ago. We were just chugging along a trail when we saw him. He saw us and took off crashing through the brush. He looked young, so we decided to turn back in case mama was on the trail...Scared the crap outta me...
 
I just recently did an overnight backbacking trip and we saw a bear. Lucky we happened to be in a spot on the trail we could see about 80 yards ahead of us and we saw him, pretty sure he didn't see us. He was pretty good size cinnamon/blond ish bear (i'm sure it was a variation of black bear no brown bear around here) and we just checked him out and he wandered off into the woods after 20 seconds or so. He just paused on the trail for a minute. Only down side was it was near dark and he was right in our path, we ended up just backtracking a bit and camping as we were not familiar with the trail ahead. It was pretty far ahead, but it was still exciting to see a big bear (big for this area that is) in the wild. If it had come out of the trees 10 feet away from us i'm sure it would have been a diffrent experience. :D
 
I don't know why, but bear encounters always get my adrenaline going, even though they usually end with the bear turning tail and running away. The only time I was genuinely concerned was a few years ago in Yosemite Valley. We had gotten up just as it was starting to get light to hike Half Dome, and my friend opened the bear box to get his food out. He then walked away, leaving it open. Of course, the sound of a bear box opening is a dinner bell for the local bears, who are completely used to people and have no natural fear. I looked over and saw a very fat bear walking around the side of the bear box, with my food just inside it. I ran over and slammed it shut, with the bear about 8' from me. It stood there staring at me, and ignored me while I yelled at it and kicked dirt at it. Oh oh, the normal things aren't working, what do I do now? Fortunately, it then slowly turned and very slowly walked away.

Of course, they do occasionally attack - this one occured not far from here, in the southern sierra, just a couple days ago:

http://www.bakersfield.com/hourly_news/story/503512.html
 
I've spent many, many nights deep in New York's Adirondack Park and have never run across a bear except in town as they try to break into dumpsters and garbage cans.

The rangers are requiring people to use bear canisters now because of the problems people have had in the past with food being stolen by these brilliant and often acrobatic bruins. It should cut down on human/bear encounters which is fine by me. I know that the black bears in NY aren't often aggressive, but I doubt I'd like to stand face to face with one.
 
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