Encounters of the furry kind

K.J. HASCALL / Hungry Horse News

All was well until we rounded that corner and bumped into a black bear.

OK, we didn't literally bump into the bear as one bumps into someone in the check-out line at the grocery store, but coming within 10 feet of a bear is plenty close for me.

But let me begin at the beginning. My fiance and I began Sunday morning with a huckleberry bear claw in Polebridge, followed by a very slow drive down the Inside North Fork Road to Logging Lake trailhead.

Our hike through the trees was pleasant. The sun was just warm enough a sweatshirt in the shadows was unnecessary. Glacier lilies carpeted the sides of the trail in sunny yellow splotches. We saw more than one stump or fallen tree growing shaggy coats of moss. Spiky saplings had sprouted from the decaying bark.

We came to a clearing near the banks of Logging Creek, the trees wiped out nearly a decade ago by the Moose Fire. The fire has created viewpoints of the beautiful Livingston Range, peaks still covered in snow. Some of the trees still have leaves, even though their trunks are burned. Resilience, I thought.

The trail dipped down and there it was: a bear paw print. Pressed into the mud. A bit farther along, another track. Then lots of tracks. And piles of scat that looked darn fresh.

"We should start singing," I told Shawn. The only song that came to mind was "Have a Cuppa Tea" by the Kinks, a British rock band. Shawn loves it and I find the song annoyingly catchy.

"Have a cuppa tea, have a cuppa tea, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, Rosie Lea," I belted out, hoping my rather atrocious singing voice would scare off anything nearby. "If you feel a bit under the weather, if you feel a little bit peeved, take granny's stand-by potion, for any old cough or wheeze."

Shawn chuckled in front of me.

"What's so funny?" I asked. "What are the things a cuppa tea cures?"

"I know one is insomnia and one is water on the knee," he said, still refusing to join my rousing chorus.

"It's a cure for hepatitis, it's a cure for chronic insomnia, it's a cure for tonsillitis and for water on the knee," I sang.

A cuppa tea is not a cure for bears.

We rounded the corner and Shawn stopped. I saw the bear turn and run. It stopped about 30 feet away, a foot or two off the trail.

I can't print the words that then passed through my mind.

Shawn is a much more level-headed person than me.

"Hey, hey Boo Boo!" he shouted.

I giggled and the wave of adrenaline passed over me.

Shawn and I shouted and waved our arms, but the bear would not move. The area was thick with brush and dark in the shade, so Shawn and I decided not to chance walking between the bear and a possible cub hidden in the bushes. We turned around and walked back to the pickup. We estimate we came within a mile of the lake.

We ate lunch on the tailgate and chatted with a ranger who came off the trail 10 minutes after we did.

"Did you see the bear?" I asked him.

"Nope, guess you have to be in the right place at the right time," he answered.

We plan to return this weekend and make it to Logging Lake this time. We hear it's beautiful. And while seeing a bear up close for the first time was a treat, we hope the next hike is bear-free.