Wednesday, November 23, 2011

2 Feet = Personal record for closest I've been to a black bear

Last night (on Thursday night of last week) on a solo night ride here in North Georgia, I set a new personal record for the closest I've been to a black bear: about 2 feet!

I was rolling along a gravel road out in the Chattahoochee National Forest and a heard a rustling over to my left. As I looked over, a big ball of black fur jogged out of the underbrush and out onto the road, straight towards me! It turned and ran up the road, running right beside me, literally about 2-3 feet away from me! I could have about reached out and touched it, and could have easily jerked my front wheel into its side. It didn't seem to be in any big hurry, because I was easily keep pace with it. After I recovered from the shock, I grabbed the breaks to let it get ahead of me. As soon as it got out in front of me, it darted across my path off to the right and ran up into the underbrush. I stopped and watched it go, but it was soon out of sight.

MAN was that an adrenaline rush!

1 comments:

AJ Heil November 24, 2011 at 11:33 PM  

Sounds like a great experience!
Can truly make you sit in wonder at the marvel of God's creation and nature. That's definitely one of my primary draws to mountain biking - The setting, environment, and the natural world.

While you may have gotten very close, black bears are (of course) very harmless in most circumstances. While portrayed as big and frightening at times, they are rarely prone to hurt, attack, or draw near to humans.

Count yourself as lucky to get so close to such a timid animal! :D ;)

AJ

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Greg Heil is the Editor in Chief for Singletracks.com. He's been writing and publishing online since before blogging existed.

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