New Bike + Hungry Bears = Kodiak Excitement

The bears on Kodiak are in the final stages of hyperphagia. Although most have of the bears around town have fattened up, they are still looking for a few thousand more calories before heading to the hills for winter. Their preferred food sources, salmon and berries, are becoming less available and we have had numerous reports of bears picking through trash cans. The local experts say that we will see bears in and around town for the rest of the month. That said, we are on high alert for hungry bears. I was on high alert for big brown bears on my mountain bike ride yesterday. Sure enough, near the end of my ride at Boy Scout Lake, a forested state recreation site, I rounded a turn as a very fat dark brown bear was making his way down the hillside toward a stream. I skidded to a stop and caught the attention of the bear. He started to move back up the hillside, stopped, and looked over his shoulder to figure out what I was. A large tree blocked our direct eye contact as both of us waited for the other to make a move. After catching my breath and relieved to see that he was not moving any closer I used the most confident voice I could muster and told the bear to "go on, go on." Once he realized that I was just a nonthreatening human he began to walk down the hillside, keeping one eye on me as he made his way down to the stream. After that I headed for home, on the paved well-traveled main road. October bear count = 2.