Bear in Mind, Bear with Me, Bearly Made it!

Yes I know the title has the wrong spelling for the way the word "bear" is spoken, but spelled like bear because she is a bear! Ever since I was little, I have had a love for nature and animals and as long as I can remember back to bears stole my heart.

I have spent years reading about and trying to learn about bears, the behavior, habitat, tracking them and always watching. Of course, they are a massive animal and there is a fear factor. Many years ago my fears held me back. How do conquer fear?........Learn more about and understand something, fear many times is the unknown and stories in our past. We should hold a little fear of a bear encounter, the encounter can have a poor outcome. Looking back to one of my first bear encounters, Lassen National Park, camping with the family and the children were very small. Ideas of tent camping and bears still does not sit super well with me. Everyone was sleeping when bears came through the camp area, I am sure looking for scraps of people left overs ( we had none), but I heard one sniffing the side of our tent, unsettling! I had fears of being out in nature and running into a bear.

Time to beat the fears! Time to learn more about the bear driven fears. Bears became my passion as I learned more about them, and gave me great respect for the creatures. How ironic to have fears early in life of bears and spent the last 20+ years living on "Bear Creek"? 25 years ago, the fear was still down inside, enough it was preventing me from taking a long enjoyable nature walk alone. Now a days? I search for the bears. The desire and passion to capture that awesome photo of a majestic bear! The photo desire won over the fear. You can't just walk down the road, see a bear out of the blue, have them stand and pose for you whether you are camera ready or not. It has taken years. Years of learning about these magnificent animals "Ursidae" the scientific name for bear. I have studied, read, and kept a keen sense for signs of their presence. Always looking for clues, like in a treasure hunt, paw prints( in the dirt, trails they leave behind), Scratch marks in trees for territory, smells ( you can smell one close by), sounds ( if they bark at you in warning when too close) and they do crash lots with no worries of being heard, and yes....poop. The detective work begins, where do they frequent? Are they crossing daily the same area for water or wandering aimlessly when a male searches for a mate. Speaking of, the activity during mating season, where they feed at different times of the year due to what is growing in that area and the bears diet.

Now over the years, I have countless encounters with "my bears". Last year alone I spotted and recognized 8 different bears within a 10 mile area of home. A large black female with twin cubs ( a brown and a black cub, named Charlie Brown and Lucy), a medium blackish brown female with a single black cub( Betty and Pebbles), a very very large black male with a white patch on its chest ( Barney), an extremely large cinnamon bear ( Baloo), and Yogi a younger small male. How does one know difference between a male and female ( other than a mama because she has cubs?). Males have nice rounded ears while the females have a little pointed triangular ears.

While the bears, really do not wish for a human contact encounter, do not rely on the fact they will always run. Don't cross a bear, especially mom and get between her and the cubs. So don't expect to just "go out" where someone else sighted a bear and catch it! It takes patience, waiting, watching and searching.

The bear is my spirit animal, "The bear spirit animal is not only size and brawn, but also strength of mind! It possesses a sense of self-assurance and confidence, apart from the raw power and physical strength. Your bear totem represents the depth of power that you possess, and the strong pillars of support that you have during difficult times".

It has taken years to feel the strength of the bear in my heart, but it takes a lot of respect for this great animal with strength in knowledge of its life.

“Oh well, bears will be bears,” said Mr Brown.”

― Michael Bond, More About Paddington

Bear in mind, bear necessities, bearly made it, bear naked, bear foot, bear with me, bear it all, is it too much to bear? after all its only a bear

My Happy place!