The first bear of spring is exciting--like the first wildflower, only big and furry and intelligent. I guess it's not like the first flower at all. Anyway, MollyTheDog and I were hiking along a rocky ridge. We scrambled around some sofa-sized boulders to find ourselves eye-to-eye with 200-pound plus Bear--about 100 feet away. Bear moved startlingly quick, doing an about-face and bounding behind the rocks out-of-sight. MTD thought "PLAY TIME!" and took chase the way she does with other dogs. Bear shinnied up a tree, I called Molly back, and we circled down and around--with me speaking loud apologies to Bear for having such a rude and unmannerly dog. Here's worried Bear up the tree:
When we got to the bottom of the little valley, I was surprised to find the lake (elevation c. 7,000 feet) still solidly frozen over:
Back home in Walkerville above the Silver Bow valley, just a few miles away, our first wildflowers are blooming. They are not like bears at all, in that they stay still and allow themselves to be photographed close-up. As usual, our first blooms include Biscuitroot (Lomatium cous; it was an important food of indigenous peoples):
And the tiny, elegant Cutleaf Daisy (Erigeron compositus):
If you look closely, the lobed finger-like leaves of E.compositus are especially beautiful:
At a folk music event that evening, I told the bear story. A friend (and bear hunter) wanted to know just where I had seen Bear. The answer came easily: No Tellum Creek.
4 comments:
Looks like this was up on the east ridge, yes? I bet Mr/Ms blackie rethought coming out of hibernation after the weather yesterday...
Ouch, just read the last sentance of your post, somehow missed it. Apologies, ER
What a great hike. And the concluding punch line was just perfect.
Ha! Glad you didn't reveal the bear's location.
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