Dave Matthews and I were returning from another unsuccessful viewing at Brooks Falls (super in July - very little happening in September) when we found ourselves approaching a big grizzly on the road leading towards the viewing platforms at the river mouth. Being responsible adults, and also being smaller than a big bear, we retreated around the corner of the road, and thought we saw the bear go into woods. Waiting a few minutes, we proceeded on the road again, only to see the bear agin headed for us. As we backed off, this time the bear kept coming up the road. We continued to back up, and he kept coming. Finally we found ourselves at the path leading to the falls. We now had the choice of retreating into the woods, and hoping the bear continued along the road, or going into the bathroom at the junction. We choose the bathroom, and before we closed the door, watched as the bear came up to the door we had cracked. At this point we closed the door, and listened to the bear sniffing.
Then silence - both from outside and from us.
After 10 minutes we had no idea whether the bear was napping outside the door (in which case opening the door would result in banging into him) or had wandered off long ago (we hoped for this result!). There are no windows in the bathroom, so how were we to know. Each armed with our canisters of 'bear spray', we opened the door and fanned out on either side of the bathroom, just like the cops do on TV! No bear, and we wandered on back to camp - looking more carefully around us.
The two pictures may not be focused as quite as well as I would like. They were taken as I was backing up with Dave along the road, and I guess my heart rate was a little higher than I realized.
Also, the bear does look a little demented.
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