Oregon Hikers

I walked right up on a large male black bear a few summers back at Wy'East Basin, just down Vista Ridge from the Timberline Trail.

We heard this rustling about 30 feet ahead of us in some bushes just off the trail... we must have startled him by moving fast and being upwind. He lumbered out on the trail, took a good look at us, decided he didn't want to mess with two people, and took off straight uphill.

My friend who was with me was petrified. I couldn't stop laughing. Needless to say, we handle stressful situations differently.

There was a juvenile black bear on Friday afternoon (5/31) at the Santiam Pass PCT trailhead. It stayed around for a couple minutes after we arrived, sniffing around to find garbage I assume, then quickly left once it realized we were sticking around.

I saw some bear tracks recently in the Badger Creek Wilderness. And here is is a bear I was able to observe for a few minutes last August at Goat Lake near Olympic NP. The highlight of my season.