An Afternoon Hike

The cloudy weather of the past week is finally beginning to break and I wanted to get out and do a hike. I recently purchased a new pair of hiking boots and I was looking for an opportunity to break them in before the summer gets here. I also wanted to do some photography work so I headed to Roxborough State Park, about 10 miles from home.

It’s a great place to hike, and watch the wildlife. Wildlife includes numerous birds, mule deer, foxes, coyotes, mountain lion……….and black bears. Boy, did I get my chance at both wildlife viewing and photography! About 3/4 of the way around the trail I was hiking, I spotted the bear in the picture to the left. It walked out of the bushes on the right of the trail. The wind was blowing directly in his face so he immediately picked up my scent and turned to inspect me….less than 100 yards away. I’m not sure whether it was a boar or a sow but I didn’t see any cubs. That was actually my biggest worry, that there would be cubs around somewhere because a mother bear with cubs can be very unpredictable and aggressive. Fortunately this bear was alone and after giving me the good once over it turned and continued on it’s way.

After that adrenaline rush I just kept smiling to myself. In over 13 years of hiking here I’ve only seen a bear once before and that was at a considerable distance. This was a great encounter. We both, the bear and I, got something interesting to look at and we both got a nice walk!

I continued the hike and saw some mule deer and was able to get a couple of good landscape shots that made respectable HDR photo’s, if I do say so myself.

Today will be gorgeous, 80’s and clear so I’m headed to the mountains with my fishing rod and camera. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to fish but I want to be prepared just in case.

 

 

 

 

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