This just came to me via a fellow Trail Blazer so I thought I'd pass it on:
Rick White Bill Koontz and myself were headed up Mt. Pilchuck yesterday and talked to a fellow that descended from the top when he heard yelling and whistles. He was thinking accident. He slid out of the fog toward a large bear. The bear saw him coming and made fast tracks down hill. We decided to continue since it sounded like the bear was long gone and within a tenth of a mile we ran head on into a cub. It seemed like he planned to ignore us somewhat vearing the other direction but then turned around and came toward us. At one point the bear was within a few inches of us. We were banging our ice axes together and shouting trying to scare it off but he persisted;following us for a few minutes. Then some other hikers came over the bench and the bear walked over to them. At this point we made a quick be line up the mountain, realizing that mom was far to close for comfort. The other hikers didn't do anything to distance themselves from the friendly bear and we watched from above as the bear walked right up and started to smell the couple. We heard the guy yell out in panic/laughter the bear is biting me. We could see the cub kind of knawing on the guys pants! His girlfriend looked less than thrilled. We made quick tracks in the opposite direction. Acouple off hours later as we were making our way day the footpath we ran into 3 snohomish county sheriff deputies armed to the teeth looking for the cub. We shared as much info. as we had and went on our way. When we got to the parking lot the forest service had the road blocked and the dept. of fish and game cops were in the lot. The guys who was nipped by the bear reported the incident (along with many others who reported seperate incounters with the two) at the ranger station in Verlot. The chase was on. It was a wild experience. I don't care to see Mr. bear that close again cub or adult.
Mick Scott
Tom, yes I took several but they have yet to be developed as the roll in my Contax is not used up, I am still not exactly in the electronic age in digital.
here's a photo of the bear atop Pilchuck, he's about 150 lbs. and is a yearling not this Spring cub, but by no means an adult either.
http://www.alpinequest.com/twobears.jpg
Nice pic! He's still running around up there. We saw the trap on Saturday when we went to the lookout. They have the trap set right in the middle of the trailhead about 50 ft. in from the road.
BW
"Wait by the river long enough and the bodies of your enemies will float by"...Sun Tsu
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"Wait by the river long enough and the bodies of your enemies will float by"...Sun Tsu
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