Bear Encounter

Growing up, I enjoyed watching nature shows on TV. Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom was a staple of Saturday evenings at our house along with Nature, Nova, and other shows. Plus, our family had a subscription to National Geographic for many years.

One thing I learned was that baby bears are always accompanied by their mother. I was reminded of this when I was out mountain biking in Flagstaff.

Here is the story, I went up to the Flagstaff Nordic Center to get some trail riding in. I needed to ride at altitude in preparation for the Fat Tire Ride and thought this would be a good venue to do so. All my friends who I could go with bailed on me so I went up there alone. I figured there would be other riders up there and riding alone would not be an issue.

This was almost a really big mistake on my part.

I figured if I could get about 20-25 km of riding in at elevation, it would be a good ride. So I start riding and there aren't any other riders on the trail... No big deal, I keep riding. Then after about half an hour I see something cross the trail in front of me...


I stopped, then I saw another one. Then I remembered about baby bears from all those nature shows. My mind immediately started wondering, where is the mama bear...

Oh s*** she is about 50m in front of me, and she is standing up!

Time to turn around NOW and pedal in the opposite direction as fast as I can. I won't be completing this part of the loop. Forget about the extra 4-5km, I don't want to be a bear's lunch!

After pedaling quickly for a while, I looked back, and kept pedaling. I was alone on my bike in the boonies with only a Swiss Army Knife as a potential weapon. After a while my heart rate came down to normal range and I kept riding.

Then I ran into a bunch of deer...

This was a ride chock full of nature, thankfully as the ride progressed the danger level of the critters I encountered lessened considerably.

Eventually I got int just under 20km, but I broke two spokes on my rear wheel. No matter, I got done before it started raining and kept a bear family at a safe distance. All in all, a good ride.

Word to the wise, don't ride your mountain bike alone, especially if you are not equipped to deal with bears.