Of Bears

This morning I received a Marco Polo from my three-year-old niece asking me if I like bears. I do like a good bear. In my opinion, bears are one of the more underrated animals out there. They're such unusual predators because they aren't sleek or sneaky or crafty. Bears are large, strong, and surprisingly fast. I don't understand how they're so fast because they don't look efficient at all when they run. I can't quite get a read on these fascinating animals. What do bears think about? What's hidden beneath that all that thick fur?

I've always wanted to see a bear in the wild. I've seen deer, moose, rodents, foxes, coyotes, beavers, otters, numerous species of fowl, but I've never seen a bear or a gator in the wild. One time I was on a hike in the Tetons with my young mens group. There was a group in the front and a group in the back. I started out with the back group and then decided to catch the front group. At some point between leaving the back group and catching the front group a bear walked across the trail in between me and the back group and I missed it! If I would have just chilled with the group in the back I could have achieved one of my life dreams. Alas, it was not meant to be. 

In preparation for tonight's blog post, I watched several videos on bears, specifically black bears. I watched a video of a bear in a tree getting tranquilized, falling out of the tree onto a trampoline, and bouncing way into the air and onto the grass. I also watched a video of a bear chasing a skier all the way down the hill and a compilation of trail cam videos of a bear waking up from hibernation. Today I took a much-needed nap in the classic nap spot. Unlike most other days where I just kind of just lie there, today I was out cold. I had no idea where I was when I woke up and it took me like a half hour to come to my senses. It took me a while to snap to and start being productive again. Likewise, it took the bear days and days to finally fully wake up and leave the den for good Watching the video of the bear slowwwwwwly emerge from hibernation made me realize that maybe we aren't so different than bears. Though we live different lives and can't even communicate with each other, I feel like there's a lot that can be learned from our bear friends.