Preston pond bears

Friday morning, I set out for a flatter hike to repeat my quarterly friday morning walks. Taking advantage of Red Hat “Recharge” days, where the whole company gets off. This time, the destination was Preston Pond. The access road to the higher closer trails was closed, so it forced me to explore elsewhere.

The trail peaks out beyond the woods at points leading your through overgowth of late summer.

An early highlight of the hike was due to these open, tight trails. Some wild blackberry canes stretched out into the path, demanding attention. They were at prime picking, peak flavor, with a few so oblong I mistook them mulberry. I ate handfulls and shared some with the pup.

Then came the main event. We were right at the entrance to Preston Pond after taking the long way around when Brooklyn heard it first.

A heavy rustling tenfeet away, made by something that clearly wasn’t scared of our presence. A deer would have paused when they heard us coming, but whatever was in those woods kept its pace.

My mind jumped to the obvious: black bear.

Brooklyn and I froze, ears perked. I started retreating first, she followed the hint with no disagreement. Because it was full summer, the dense greenery blocked my view. But as I backed away, I saw it—a cub bumbling, peeking out from a trunk.

I failed to capture the cute shimmy-up.

I stood dead in my tracks, just watching and fumbling to film. Then, on cue, mama showed herself and came stretching from the shrubs, standing on her hind legs.

Touche. You win. I backed further and realized that she was blocking the route to complete my loop. The overgrowth and unfamiliarity prevented a detour. We were at the intersection where a shortcut ended. If the bears had been just a bit further up the trail, we could have slipped past on that shortcut.

I felt beaten, but also was filled with awe.

The way back we climbed to Libby’s lookout for a rest. That had more incline than the rest of the trail, which I suppose makes sense: you have to earn your vistas. It was pleasant, clear, and besides the bear, it made it totally worth it. I sat up there for a while and drank my coffee.

The bear encounter agressively highlighted something I’ve been thinking about: being present in the woods.

Listening to an audiobook, or doing voice memos for later LLM ingestion ain’t it. Seeing a bear supersedes any thoughts of productivity or daydream. I suppose it’s similar with berries jumping out at you. Or sheer cliffs surprising you on the trail. Maybe next cycle, I’ll rely on a map and bring the camera.

On the way back, we noticed multiple stands of blackberries that I had missed on the way out. No wonder this was bear country. Seeing my black dog eat berries made me wonder what it’s like to have a bear chow them down out of my hand.

Soild hike. Done at 9:30.