Remember how their were some bear threads a few months back. Experiences and what not. Well, I have been in bear country before and never in my life have I actually seen a bear in the wild. Sign yes, but no live bears. Sure I have in zoo's and I may have heard some in the woods at night while camping but I may never be sure. Well fishing in the adirondacks in New York, Green mountains of Vermont and at a family camp in New Hampshire for nearly 20 years, not one siting, even from a car. Well that has all changed. AND IN CONNECTICUT.
I was fishing the Farmington river friday with my cousin and uncle. I had just caught and released a nice 16" rainbow that I wanted a picture of but it was slippery. So while I retied my rig we talked on the bank. We heard a few branches breaking coming our way and as my cousin said a deer was coming and we all turned around to watch. Just then a kayaker, looked like a father daughter, came on by and leasurly told us that there was a black bear behind us. I was sitting on a rock and didn't comprehend what he just said as I was turning to look at a deer. As I looked up the ravine I saw a very large black body hustling along. It's snout and ears were very blonde and the rest was very black. I stood and went to take a step to turn around while looking and my foot hit a rock in about a foot of water and stopped moving, I finally got it over the rock as I started to lean into the river and took a large step to about 3.5 feet of water and proceeded to swim back to the bank, much to the amusment of everyone. Well the bear didn't even look and kept on hustling along. In the last moments the kayaker could yell to us, he said their was another one coming.
So as I took off my waders to empty them of 55 degree water we talked more and they laughed at me a few more times. Just as I was tieing my second boot I heared more snapping branches and caught a glimps of the second bear. Another about the size of the first. This one moving much slower and cautiously. There was a road just above were it was through thick brush and hemlocks. We saw a cyclist flash by only feet from it and probably never knew it was there. After that it crossed the road to avoid us and was gone. That was two bears in less than 15 minutes.
Well that made my day. The fishing was pretty good, too. Like I said I have never seen bears in the wild before so I am a bad guess at their weight. However I would put both at well over 200 lbs. Much larger than a St Bernard I saw just last week and was told he was under weight at 180lbs. Either way it was a different experience. One I wouldn't like to experience alone, and I was glad to see them move on quickly especially since they were only about 40 feet above us at the closest. But one that I am glad I experienced.
O and I just cracked the top 200, so I have a lot more posting to do. Have fun, and look up from the water every once in a while. You may be suprised at what you see.
