I've been hiking about every other day this summer, and yesterday I encountered a bear on the trail, and I've never had one act the way this one did. It scared me. In Montana I've had lots of bear encounters, some as close as 5 yards. If you spend a lot of time in the woods, these sudden encounters with wildlife up close happen from time to time. Every time I've met a bear, the bear leaves, usually at the speed of a freight train. Once I had a stand off with a sow and two cubs that lasted for minutes face to face at 10 yards. I carried bear spray back then, and I had it out, but eventually the sow rounded up her cubs and walked away. But this bear yesterday...
I live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia now, and we have bears, quite a few, and I had one on my porch a few years ago. I see one or two in my yard each year. I haven't carried bear spray since I moved here. I was starting my hike in early light to beat the heat of the day, and a half mile into my hike I caught a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye down below me in the creek bottom. I didn't pick up any color just movement. I kept walking and a second or maybe seconds later about 40 yards ahead a bear came charging up the hill and crossed the trail at full speed and quickly disappeared into the brush. For the record, he was unusually big, not that makes any difference really.
I thought, hey cool and I wasn't afraid because he was in a hurry to get away, or it seemed like it, but a couple of seconds later he charged back down to where he crossed the trail and spun around to look at me for a couple more seconds. And I got this "Oh, shit" feeling, and then he started coming at me, not a slow stalk, but in a way that I might describe as "fast and meaningful", and he then he quickened his pace. I shouted at him to make sure he knew I was human (bears don't have great eyesight), but he kept coming, so I shouted at him again with the most authoritative voice I could manage, "Go away bear!" Yeah, I know. Kind of dumb, but I had to say something.
Then he stopped short, and looked like he was processing the situation. I thought, "OK this is probably over, but he started running at me again, and I just kept shouting, "Go away. Get out of here!" Then he stopped short again and looked like he was processing again. He spun around and headed up the trail and disappeared back into brush. I went home. Fuck that hike.
I called around and found a Dick's sporting good store that had one canister of bear spray. They said they would hold it for me, and I drove 50 miles to get it. When I got to the customer service counter, I told them I was there to pick up some bear spray, and the guy at the counter shouts to a guy at check out that there is supposed to be some bear spray for this guy. Right! Announce it to the whole store. Might as well add that I was a real wimp. I didn't say anything, but the canister was brought to the counter from across the store. So I walked over to the check out and had to pass this redneck guy that was smiling while he said, "You know, a .357 magnum works pretty good for that too," so I walked over to him and said, "Yeah, but I don't want to piss the bears off. I just want them to leave me alone." He was fine with that and acknowledged it as not unreasonable.
In thinking about this afterwards, I'm wondering if the bear was attempting a bluff charge. I've heard they do this, but never saw one actually do it. I never had a bear come at me before. I feel certain he knew I was human, especially after I yelled at it. It was strange that he charged and then withdrew, because I was defenseless and he had me dead to rights, not that he knew that of course. But if he was just trying to intimidate me, it worked because I was beating a retreat with one eye over my shoulder right after it was over. So he's got the creek to himself for another day, but I'll be back there tomorrow with a can of bear spray in hand and my bear radar set on high.