No Lions, No Tigers, But BEARS–oh my!

When walking through the woods of the Pacific Northwest, you may run into a grazing herd of deer or a cow that may have escaped from a fenced in corral. And perhaps even a raccoon.  This was the case when out strolling one day with my sister in law.  We walked one of her three mile jaunts – my camera in tow.

Miss Dinky – aka Dinkum – was always about ten steps ahead of us.  Plenty of sniffing, scouting and stick finding.  If you aren’t careful, Dinky will find a large stick to carry in her mouth and whack you in the leg as she runs on by.  And yes, we were both whacked more than once during this particular walk in the woods.  OUCH!

There was plenty of nature to take photos of – like these spider webs in bushes.   They were kind of creepy.  I am not fond of webs or their artisans.

Soon I became distracted by the pretty things along our path.  Rose Hips were rampant with their little dots of red randomly splashed amongst the green foliage.

Other wild flowers scattered the path.  Though basically thinned out this time of year, there were still little pops of color on the hillsides here and there.

We were enjoying our walk and talking about the plants and scat that we found along the path.  Yup, deer scat and other kinds.  You can learn a lot about who “did it” by looking at it.  Coyote scat has deer hair and bear scat will have berries or fruit. 

All of a sudden, to our right, we heard a heavy footed something just beyond the tree line.  It sounded like something very heavy…

….stepping onto the dried vegetation…and it wasn’t us.

And then…

woof.

A deep down in the belly …

…woof…..

We stopped.

We listened.

We stood perfectly still.

I wasn’t afraid.  Just kind of surprised.

Out came the hand gun and we began to walk.

Slowly.

Dinky ahead…she was all ears.  She was careful.  She knew.  We knew.  A bear.

No sight of the bear. 

But we knew he was there AND HE knew we were there.  I kind of felt like the victim of a stalker.

And then this:

…Okayyyyyy……

So onwards..

Carefully we strolled ahead.

Listening.

This corner was the last one near the house.

I kind of felt like running like Forest Gump.  Bad idea though.  In my head was “Run Forest, RUN!”

And the guys, who were building the deck on the house, had NO idea.  Dinky knew.  We knew. Duhgall stayed back with the construction crew.  Lucky him.

A nice adult beverage is always the cure for frazzled nerves.

And a pink one is all the better.

Cold and tasty and easy to go down the hatch.

aww….mucho better-o!!

And our faithful sheps watch from the safety of the deck.

Duhgall….

…and Dinkum.

Our two glorious hounds.

Patiently watching the meadow ahead.

Watching for something to bark at.

And bark loud.  Like that will do any good.

But we let them think they are rock star barking hero's.

Indeed.

Good doggies watching from afar.

And a second tasty adult beverage….paleeeez.

Gracias.

Better.

I’m ready to take on any bear now.

Liquid courage.

Amazing how that works.