Clayton and I went on our first (and possibly last) hike of the year today. One of the things I look forward to most when the weather turns warm is hiking, a great excuse to get some exercise, take some pictures, enjoy nature...but that may change from now on.
Since we are finally getting some semi-nice weather, today we decided to go check out a hike we have wanted to do since we moved here. To a beautiful waterfall in the Mission mountains about 30 or so miles south of where we live.
So we start the hike and as we are walking along, probably about a 1/2 mile into the trail, we hear brush rustling to the right of us. And naturally, we freeze. Now this has happened on our hikes before and always elicits a rise in heart rate, but never have we discovered anything more than a bird, deer or rodent making that noise. Until today. This rustling is different, louder. Made all the more scary by the fact that we can't see hardly anything because the brush is so dense. Of course I start freaking out while Clayton calmly (or at least much more calmly than me) keeps still and reaches for the bear spray, peering through to see if he can catch any glimpse of what is there.
And what does he see? The hind end of a grizzly bear. A FREAKIN' GRIZZLY. Less than 30 yards away. So he tells me what it is and I'm pretty sure I begin hyperventilating at that point. I start booking it back down the trail loudly whispering to Clayton to hurry the *&$# up, which is just perfect, exactly what you aren't supposed to do in that situation. Go figure. I picture in my head all of the horrible things a bear could do to two humans, but luckily this is where the drama stops, as it looked like the bear had little interest in what we were doing and started walking the other direction. But all the way down (which we probably made in record time) I was certain a vicious elephant-sized grizzly would jump out any second and eat us for dinner.
All I can say is thank whoever is our guardian angel that that particular bear was not hungry for humans today! I am pretty sure my heart rate is not yet back to normal, and I will probably have nightmares for days, but I am just happy to be alive. Okay that is probably slightly dramatic, but honestly that's probably the single most scary thing that has happened to me in a very long time. I don't see hiking (at least anywhere there may be bears present) reappearing on my to-do list any time soon!
Well that's quite a long story for one picture, but here is my click of the day. This is the Mission Reservoir, near where we were hiking today. The hike was a bust, but at least there were pictures like this to make up for it!
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