Given all the warning signs about bears at Glacier National Park, I have to say that I was a bit intrigued and tried my best to catch a glimpse of one. Even after a four hour hike this past Thursday I still had yet to come across a single bear. I even came across paw prints, hair and bear droppings (I think).
The one warning about getting close to bears that for some reason I've never forgotten is that you never want to find yourself between a mother bear and her cub...
So, Thursday night I decided to take a bike ride along the main road to see if I could spot one from the road and upon my return I suddenly heard the cracking of a branch just above where I was riding on an incline leading up into a densely forested area. I stopped my bike took a look up and spotted a little black bear cub walking about 35 feet above where I was. Through my head flashes that warning that I'll never forget and I'm starting to scan for the cub's mother. Within a few seconds I spot her walking behind her cub - not yet noticing me. I grabbed my video camera and started shooting. The footage is a bit shaky since it was hard for me to actually see the screen on my Flip.
At the :07 mark you will see a Brown bear walking near the top of the video and at the :43 mark you should see the black cub cruising along. Look closely at the 1:01 mark and you can see mama spotting me and quickly dropping down to a defensive stance with her two front paws. It happens really quickly. What you can't hear is her snorting through her nose at the same time she does that. Not really knowing what she was going to do next, I decided to take off instead of becoming the poster boy for what can happen to you when you bother bears in their natural habitat.
It was pretty neat to see the bear and her cub (bonus point) - and by the way it was about 10 minutes from our campground. I had a couple dreams about bears coming into my tent that night.