Stare Down

The hair on the back of my neck rose as I watched his own scruff bristle behind his monstrous head. His dark eyes never left me as his head swayed back and forth, dipping and rising; tasting and smelling the air, infuriated and confused at my presence. I stood, slightly crouched, ready for the charge at any moment but with no idea what my body would do at that time. There was no sound around me, as if the rest of the world was muted and the only audible sound was the huffs he made with each breath.

He lowered his head and widened his shoulders. Of all the thoughts in my head I couldn’t believe how long his fur was and how it stood straight up like a scared cat. His movement jolted me from my thoughts as he raised his front legs and pounced forward, billowing up dirt under the weight of his front paws as they slammed the ground.

Surprise to me, I stayed my ground, grabbed the corners of my jacket and raised them up like wings. How can I try and look bigger than this massive animal just feet away?! What was I thinking? I should just curl into a ball on the ground and wait for the ‘play with your food’ game, but no, I think I can scare this bear away! I hold the corners of my jacket up and wave it slowly back and forth saying, ‘Go on bear. Go on.’

The bear’s head bounces up and down in reply to my waving and he started huffing and popping his mouth. He kept bobbing his head while scratching at the ground in front of him, as if he was trying to throw dirt my way, then he slowly took a couple steps back. More like waddles backwards, as if he was getting a running start on a charge. He didn’t want to give up his stand but I sure prayed he would. Again I said in a stern but loud voice, ‘Go on! Get on out! Go on bear!’

He raised up on his hind legs and my legs about crumbled. This beast had just doubled in size and I knew he could take me out with one swipe of his paw in an instant. I was relying on my super woman wings to scare this guy off peaceably but it wasn’t looking like it was going to go my way.

My rifle was up against a tree where I had left it to use the ladies ‘room’. My knife was in my pack which was also resting against the tree. I had a pocket knife in my pocket and as always, my .38 was on my hip. In the back of my head I just didn’t feel like I should shoot. I felt it would bring him charging my direction, mad at the loud noise and pain it might cause, so I left my gun holstered. It was like a finely tuned balance. One move could tip the scale and probably tip it over all together. I wished for some bear spray!

The milliseconds passed like hours as I simply stared at the bear, standing on his hind legs, feeling the heat radiate from him, the smell of wild stinging my nose. As he started to come down from his stance a shot rang out over my head. The bear and I both jumped and shied from it, our focus moving from each other to the direction of the sound. The bear shouldered back as if he was going to retreat, then raised up on hind legs again trying to pinpoint the noise and the smell of someone else in the forest.

Another shot rang out and the bear spun a half circle as he came back to all fours and started loping away from me into the woods. At the edge of the tree line but still in the tall grass, he stopped and turned back one last time, raising his head and huffing into the breeze as if to say ‘You were lucky this day. Until next time.’ and off into the woods he disappeared.

With the bear out of site, I turned back to the direction of the gunfire to see my hunting partner cresting over the hill toward me. There was no better happiness than in that moment and I crumbled to my knees in thanks.