An interesting stroll in my wheelchair

[swalker]

We are back from Yellowstone and I am still recovering and going through all the pictures I took (about 5,000). I will post a trip report soon, hopefully within the next week. In short, it was a great, but very damp, trip.

Now that we are home, I have been resting a lot while it rains outside. Yesterday we got enough of a break in the weather for me to try a stroll in the wheelchair along one of my favorite bike paths. I have done this many, many times on my bike, but this is only the second try on the wheelchair (it is only recently that the snow has completely cleared from it).

About 2 miles into my stroll, I came a cross a black bear on the bike path. It was a beautiful animal, but I was a bit concerned about how it would react to a wheelchair vs a pedestrian or cyclist. I was upwind, so the bear could certainly smell me. It did not acknowledge my presence, but ambled along the path until it felt like getting off. I gave it a few minutes to get clear of the path and then proceeded past its last known point. A bit scarier in a wheelchair limited to 6.5 mph vs my bike where I used to be able to do about 40 mph on that stretch. Bears can do 20+.

I have done that bike path hundreds of times over the last 20 years. My wife has done it about 5 times. She has seen a bear on the path, but up until yesterday, I had not. Now I have. It was great and very memorable.

The stroll was wonderful. I went 9 miles round trip gaining about 1000 feet. I saw crows, chickadees, robins, a stellar jay, a redtail hawk, a marmot, ... and a bear. It was very pleasant.

Steve

 

[azwxman]

Sreve,

What a great day that sounds like. Sure, a bit scary, but how cool to see the wildlife like that.

 

[gooseberry]

Omg! So cool but yet a little scary!

 

[cheerleader]

Steve, so good to hear you are living your life fully! Great attitude!

 

[Nuts]

Good for you, Steve. Make the most of the day, and it sounds like you do that on a regular basis.

 

[Gembead]

We only have to worry about snakes on paths were I live.....Bears win in the scary department.
Glad you had a great time.
Love Gem

 

[Green Queen]

I agree (I think :shock Gem..the only good snake is a dead snake, at least we can get them with a shovel!...but a bear...wow.
Steve you may have interrupted his privacy time...you know what they say about bears and woods!
Glad you are home safe and had an awesome time...when you are ready I can't wait to hear about your trip.
God bless, Janelle x

 

[affected]

WOW Steve.

I'm all for wildlife as you all have probably guessed.

Snakes don't bother me at all, they have their place in my ecosystem and I must say I am always intrigued and have to sit and watch them when I see one.

But bears just undo me. As you say they can move fast and they can do damage! If it had been me I admit I would have been carefully testing out reverse, I don't know if I would have been game to keep going past that bear. You have my respect forever!

How wonderful that you are gaining so much freedom to go out for such a long ride on your own and at your own pace. Next time have the camera, I want to see that bear!

 

[skipper66]

Hi Steve,
Glad you enjoyed your trip. Sorry, it was damp though. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the pics.
I have a neat story about my experience with a black bear that happened a few years back. I live in a very small town in central Illinois. I am a switchboard operator at our local hospital. One day all the workers were all excited and wanting to go outside. I was like 'What's going on?" Well, it turned out that a guy had a family member in the hospital and he was raising a black bear cub at his home which was about a 1/2 hour away. He had the cub with him out in his car and got it out to show people. I kept begging my co-worker to watch the phone so I could go see it. It wasn't that little but the guy let me hold him. I was so excited! I wish I had a camera with me. But, I could sure tell the things was wild. It made a growling type sound that was scary. I didn't hold it for very long that was for sure. I told my kids and husband about it when I got home. They said "Do you work at a hospital or a circus?" lol

 

[Green Queen]

So what you are saying Kim that everything I remember about Gentle Ben is WRONG !?!?

 

[skipper66]

The cub I held wasn't gentle that was for sure. lol He wanted to eat me!

 

[zoohouse]

That is wonderful Steve, Tim would be so jealous. There are a lot of bears around here and my sister sees one often as she drives home from work to her house. We are always on the look out, but the most we've seen is the tail end of one that a dog was chasing. 2 summers ago, I had to leave Tim alone on a hike that we were taking because his chair locked up and I had to go to get the manual and tools. I left him with his cell phone and a cedar switch to swat mosquitos and bears, but he didn't need it for either.
But 2 days ago Tim started yelling "MOOSE, MOOSE" and I thought he must be hallucinating, but right across the street there was a cow moose trying to jump the 6' privacy fence. She must have slipped because she go hung up and fell back onto her side. She ran further down and jumped a shorter fence. We live right in town, and I have lived here 30 years and have never seen a moose in town. Bears, yes, coyotes all the time, and once a wolf. We have a nesting pair of Bald eagles, Osprey and Herons that often fly over and check out our pond for fish.
Paulette

 

[tripete]

As a salesman I often drove a lot. One morning when the sun had just come up, along route 20 while driving from Springfield Massachusetts to Pittsfield (I often took back roads as the Turnpike would get very boring) I looked up and there where two young moose (mooses. meeses?) sauntering down the highway. I must have followed then for a quarter of a mile (400 meters for those of you who do not know the proper way to measure ) before they broke off into the woods. They where young but still amazingly huge, and beautiful. I miss the north and all the wildlife and woods that I grew up with.

 

[Green Queen]

Mooses...bears...wow.
The part of WA that I'm from, has snakes, lizards, kangaroos. ..that's about it for native fauna. Big farming and fishing area.
When we were over on what we call our Big Holiday over Tillie's way, we woke up one morning to a kookaburra sitting on the patio table. We sat and watched it for about half an hour (that's 30 minutes, Pete). It was awesome. Would love to see a bear or moose though!
Love these stories being shared. It's what we'd be doing at a barbie if we were all together. ..
God bless, Janelle x

 

[patrick123]

I'm more afraid of people in cars