The Attack of the Bear

She talked about it; she dreamed about it, she neverjust crossing the path about 50 yards in front of us. My
let it go. This was how a friend of mine regarded hergood friend screamed, grabbed a hold of me and
fear of coming across a bear when we would gostarted to shake. I joined in with the screaming part
hiking in the wilderness areas of Idaho. Her character isbecause the first thing you do when you come across
strong in all other ways. She is kind, hard working,a bear is make a lot of noise to scare it off. So I
intelligent, prosperous and loving. But when the wordfigured, what the heck, I might as well scream too to
"bear" crosses those ears of hers, she turns to Jell-O.make her feel better.
In other words, her life is somewhat Un-Bear-Able!Well, the bear scurried off, my friend almost fainted
We were hiking last spring in the Coeur d'Aleneand I laughed till I cried. I gave her a few minutes for
mountains going for a 10 mile excursion to visit one ofher heart to slow down from it's 160 beats a minute
the beautiful alpine lakes that are plentiful through outand then I calmly and gently said to her, "You see,
this part of Idaho. We packed a lunch, threw on ourbears are not going to hurt you". She calmly said to
backpacks and set off for a glorious day of exerciseme, "We got lucky this time buster". Well, needless to
and becoming one with nature. My friend, however,say, this experience did not help her fear of bears but
was nervous and carried a canister of bear sprayonly increased the intensity of her phobia.
(kind of like pepper spray only for bears) with her justWe still go on hikes together and now my friend is
in case. I assured her that bears were harmless in thismore at peace in the wilderness like never before. No,
area. Only black bears roamed the woods here...noshe did not get over her extreme terror of bears. No,
grizzlies I told her. Yet she was set out to believe thather dreams have not stopped. No, she has not made
a bear was a bear and in her mind, they were all verypeace with this precious animal. When we returned to
very bad.our city dwellings after that last hike, my dear loveable
After about an hour of vigorous hiking we sat downsweet caring friend immediately called up a shooting
for a minute to take a drink of our water and take ingallery, enrolled in a class to learn how to shoot a gun,
the natural beauty that surrounded us. SNAP! went aand now carries a pistol on her side whenever we
tree branch just up the trail and there it was...everythingroam the hills and valleys of bear country (just in case,
she ever imagined in her worst nightmares was inshe says). My friend feels less nervous and seems to
front of her. It was, you guessed it, a big black 10 footenjoy our hikes like never before. Me, I feel sorry for
growling snarling bear! Actually, that is how shethe poor bear.
remembers it. It was actually a small female black bear