Unexpected meeting with our sow and cubs

We awakened to another glorious summer day. It's warm and comfortable, although smoke is in the air from faraway fires, reminding us of the scary part of summer.

The flowers are bursting to life. During our ride, K and I swooshed through a meadow dotted with Golden Banner flowers. Soon, Golden Banner will paint the entire meadow yellow.

Later, when I was riding alone, I noticed the enticing combination of bluebells and Golden Banner.

There's a remote meadow that I often ride through alone. Based on tracks, it appears as if I'm the only human who ever visits the meadow. Just a few days ago, I speculated in my mind that it was a perfect place for a bear to forage because of the abundance of Golden Banner (a bear food) and the solitude.

Today, I silently glided down a smooth and steep path into the meadow at high speed. As I glided, I heard a loud snort - an explosion of air from a mammal's nostrils. Before I could look for the source, I heard another sound - the scrabbling of small claws against a pine tree's bark.

When I stopped, here was the first animal that I saw - our sow.

Knowing that "our" sow has cubs and I'd heard claws on bark, I looked up. I saw the silhouette of a cub high in a Ponderosa Pine tree.

I've met this sow in past years when she's had cubs, and she and the cubs have galloped off into the forest together, giving me just a brief view of their rumps. However, all of those encounters were late in the summer, when the cubs were much bigger, stronger, and faster than these little ones who we've seen on my wildlife cameras over the past two months.

So, today, the sow couldn't flee because her cub(s) were up trees. I never saw the second cub but the odds are that he/she was up a nearby tree, and I was too distracted by the sow to spot the cub. Instead of fleeing, this good mother snorted and stomped. She ran back and forth, always keeping a good distance (30-50 yards) from me but clearly trying to scare me away from the cub's tree without having a direct conflict.

I took out my pepper spray and stood still to see which way the sow wanted me to go. I was a little worried that I was heading toward the second cub who might be further down the trail. However, in the sow's flurry of sprinting back and forth, she gradually gravitated slightly back toward the cub who I'd seen in the tree. I surmised that the second cub was somewhere close to the one who I'd spotted.

Based on that, I decided that the best course of action was to walk my bike down the trail, away from the treed cub, keeping my pepper spray out with the safety off and keeping one eye on the sow. The sow trailed me at a good distance, still making lots of noise to scare me away. I've never heard so much snorting in my life! After I walked about 100 yards away from the cub, she turned and ran with amazing grace toward her cub.

The sow was gorgeous. She rippled with muscle and had plenty of fat reserves. Her coat was shiny and sleek. I wanted to freeze time and imprint her beauty in my brain.

My actions were based on tons of reading about black bear behavior. Although the popular belief is that mothers with cubs are the most dangerous bears, hard data show that they are not. They rarely attack. Instead, they bluster and try to scare away any human or animal who is threatening their cubs. Keeping a calm demeanor and slowly moving away from the cubs is the best advice that I've read.

I was happy with my reaction today. I stayed very calm. When I pulled out my pepper spray, I even remembered to notice the wind direction so that I wouldn't have the pepper spray blow back in my face (but I never truly believed that I was going to need the spray). Despite the excitement, I remembered that the sow had a second cub somewhere in the area and tried to figure out where that cub was based on sow's behavior. It all worked out fine. This is a good bear, a bear who is afraid of people but uses her "bear behavior" rather than force to scare us away.

I came away feeling truly lucky to have seen the bear family in person. I felt guilty that I'd caused them so much stress but I didn't do it on purpose. As soon as I realized what was going on, I tried to manage the situation as peacefully as I could.

It was a day that I'll never forget because I love having bears in our forest.