Bears!!

The weather was sort of nice today so I got out of the house while Stephanie was working on some of her grad homework. I went for a hike to investigate the historic Ogeechee canal in Tom Triplett park, which is not far from the Savannah airport. The hiking was sort of crappy because many sections of the trail were totally covered with flood waters (got nice and muddy) and the trail was pretty poorly marked.

Since the trail wasn't marked very well, I never found the canal. But I did find BEARS!!!! Now this is an interesting situation. I've been hiking so many times over years straight through bear sanctuaries and never caught a glimpse of a real black bear. But today, on a 20 minute hike I saw a momma and two baby bears foraging through the undergrowth.

I first heard the rustling of their footsteps way off in the distance and I expected it to be another hiker. Then I caught glimpse of the mother bear shortly followed by two babies at her heals.

Until now, I had never seen anything in the wild that was bigger than me. When I saw these guys I must honestly say that a rush a fear swept through me. All at once I began to think, "Should I run? Is the momma going to charge me? Can I climb any of these trees before she closes the distance on me?".

I'm not sure if the bears noticed me or not. They actually might be used to people hiking through so they weren't phased by hearing my footsteps. I just stood there and took a few pictures of them as they passed through. They didn't really get that close to me, but I must say it was a neat sighting.