Hey Bear! You're a Bear!

With the wealth of knowledge and information available online, in books, and in the packets HANDED to you when you enter any park in bear country, you would think then, that in the rare circumstance you actually came face to face with a bear, one might have some semblance of an appropriate reaction to the situation. Perhaps you would back up slowly while talking softly to the bear, or maybe you get your bear spray out while yelling and clapping your hands in order to deter the bear from advancing further, hell even if you were gripped with terror and couldn't think strait enough to administer an appropriate response you could at least drop to the ground and play dead. But to repeatedly yell "Hey Bear! You're a Bear!" while shaking your index finger at a large, furry, maul-capable mammal as if to remind it of its Biological Species, seems like the worst response in the world, possibly only trumped by performing said response, naked, covered in honey marinated salmon fillets. Oh and you're hiking alone with your daughter and no bear spray? Dad of the year award goes too....
As we approached that fateful bend on the North Shore trail, heading back to our cars from the last hike in Glacier National Park, our nerves were at an all time high. We had seen multiple fresh bear droppings and the majority of the trail was lined with dozens of colorful signs stating "Warning: Bear Frequenting Area". So I can't say I was too surprised when the object up ahead in the trail that a Man, whom we had run across earlier hiking with his daughter, was pointing at, yelling like he had seen a G-G-G-Ghost in an episode of Scooby-Doo, turned out to be a bear.
Mark, Nancy and I filled our roles perfectly. I quickly pulled out the bear spray and had my hand on my knife like the ending sequence from "The Grey", while Marks Italian sass mixed with his fight or flight reflex kicked in and he yelled "F*ck this!" and headed back the way we came, while Nancy, as expected, grabbed her camera, which had no zoom, and proceeded to position herself where she wouldn't need zoom in order to fill the majority of the shot with the bear. The father-daughter team quickly relieved themselves of their position and headed backwards down the trail with Mark in tow.
It took a few moments to finally convince Nancy to stop getting closer to the large beast that was already walking strait towards us, and we both yelled and made noises at the bear, who, more interested in looking for berries than going Kung-Fu Panda on us, B-lined it off the trail and passed by us not 25 feet away to our right, in the woods. After it was safe we regrouped and headed down the trail, with two extra members, back to the parking lot at the Two Medicines visitor center.
So with only 2 miles of trail left between us and the end of our trip we finally met face to face with the last animal needed to complete our western safari. We weren't entirely sure if it was a black bear or an adolescent grizzly that walked towards us that day, but I am sure that we were all happy to have made it back safely and with the cap still securely fastened on our bear spray.
The hike we went on started at the visitors center in the Two Medicine area of Glacier National Park. We hugged the shores of Two Medicine lake and then headed up to No Name lake, where we ate lunch before returning to the aforementioned lake and traced it back on the opposite side to our cars. It was a good hike, not outstanding, but since most of the trails were still covered by snow in the Two Medicine area, our options were limited. The bear however, did make the trip worth it.

Mileage: 12 Miles

Staggering peaks.

Rope Bridge.

No Name Lake reflections.

Awesome.

Derp!

Extra group members.

Warning signs.