Kids and I are home from a wild weekend at the cabin. Lots of time outdoors.
Sunday morning we went for a walk to have a quick visit with our neighbours.
On the walk back we encountered a mother bear and two cubs. We yelled and waved our arms in the air, we stood close together to make the mother bear think we were a bigger adversary than we really were.
Although her cubs were safely behind her, she didn’t back down. She actually stood up and kept watching us and making aggressive noises.
Knowing that we were closer to our cabin than the neighbour’s cabin, I had the kids move behind me and we slowly inched along the trail.
I told my kids we were in a bit of a pickle here and that if I told them to do something, they needed to do what I asked them to do immediately and without question.
We kept moving slowly towards the cabin while I prepared to protect my kids.
I thought any weapon is better than no weapon so I pulled out the Black Tusk folding pocket knife I got @houseofknives and prepared for a battle to the death (probably mine, not the bear’s). I was just thinking about giving my kids time to get to safety if the bear attacked.
Mama Bear and Papa Bear were now in a stand off.
I haven’t been in a physical altercation since 1981 and I really didn’t want to go toe to toe with a black bear, but what’s a dad to do? I prepared myself to protect my kids.
Fortunately the mother bear looked around at her cubs who were now far behind her, then looked at me and my kids with our hands high above our heads, and then she dropped to all fours, gave a loud “woof” and took off.
We made it straight back to the cabin where we sat down and I enjoyed a lovely cup of “Papa’s special tea” to stop my hands from shaking.
They say the best camera is the camera you have with you. I guess that’s true for knives as well.