Bearly dreaming

Jenny and I were walking down the side of one of the hilly peaks in the Grafton area of West Virginia. It was a tranquil area within one of a myriad of state parks in the vicinity. It was the middle of August and quite humid for the elevation. However, the scenery and serenity of the environment cooled our skin like the breeze from an A/C.

Both of us had heavy backpacks hugging our backs and backsides. I would estimate that we were carrying forty extra pounds of weight. Plus, both of us were wearing heavy hiking shoes so we were not moving at a quick pace. We were traveling down off of the mountain, so we were not straining as much as we could have.

Suddenly, as I glanced out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a brown mass ahead of us and to the left. It was obviously an animal loping between the trees a short distance from the trail. I quickly determined the animal to be a young brown bear. I thought that black bears were the only bear species in this area, but the animal I saw looked more like one of the grizzlies I had seen many times on the National Geographic Channel. In any event, I knew enough about bears to know that they had a natural fear of humans and only attacked when provoked or when they were extremely hungry.

I didn’t believe Jenny noticed the bear because it was some distance from us and not in our line of sight. I just inadvertently spotted the shape in my peripheral vision. I decided not to alarm Jenny, but also decided to stop at a cabin that I knew was a few miles from our present location. I felt that we needed a rest and that it would be best to allow the bear time to roam away from the trail. It wasn’t like I was scared of the bear or anything.

I nonchalantly suggested to Jenny that we stop at the cabin for a few hours to replenish our energy and plot our next move. She responded "And that bear might be gone by then.” Okay, I thought. It’s probably better that we both are aware of the bear so that we can make any diversionary moves that may be required.

As we approached the cabin, we both saw the bear about one hundred yards from us, eyeing us intently and letting out a low groan. We quickly ran down the side of the cabin, which was situated on a steep incline. I didn’t actually have access to the cabin but I knew that there was a tool shed to the right of the main building which was unlocked. The cabin belonged to my buddy Johnny so I had visited there many times. For some reason, Johnny had always left the shed open even though there were tools and supplies there.

As we circled around the back of the cabin I could instinctively feel the presence of the bear. We quickly reached one of the doors to the shed and clamored in. We bolted the door with a wooden plank. As soon as I had placed the plank into the hooks which supported it, the bear slammed up against the door. For some reason, the bear was in a foul mood. He groaned and slammed his paws and the rest of his body against the door. Fortunately, the door held.

As the bear continued his rampage, I found a stool to sit on for a minute so I could collect my thoughts and plot our next move. As for Jenny, she was crouching down in the corner next to the door. She neither spoke nor moved for several moments. I could tell that she was almost to the point of being frozen in fear, as was I.

Suddenly, my attention was drawn to another door which was located on the other side of the cabin. To my chagrin, I noticed that the interior door was completely gone, while a makeshift door, which swung outward like a storm door was all that remained. This door seemed strong enough, since it was made of one inch thick wooden planks. However, the door knob was missing and there was no visible means to secure the door from the inside.

I did notice that there was a small metal handle on the door which I could use to hold the door closed if the bear came around to that side of the cabin. The one good thing about the door was that I surmised that there were no knobs or handles on the outside of the door which the bear could use as leverage. In addition, the bear would be restricted in any attempt to push the door open, since the door had a sturdy frame and the hinges would be working against him.

Only seconds after I had collected all of those thoughts and developed a plan for repelling the bear, I heard him trudging around the shed and approaching the plank door. I quickly jumped up and grabbed the handle and hoped that the bear couldn’t find any way to create leverage on the door to open it. The bear started pounding on and lunging at the door without damaging it in any way.

I was able to hold the door closed for at least five minutes, but I felt that the bear was not going to give up easily. I felt that I needed to take more drastic actions. I had remembered that Johnny kept a .22 caliber hand gun in an old desk in the shed. I yelled for Jenny to retrieve the gun out of the desk and hand it to me. Jenny was deathly afraid of guns but she was able to allay those fears and retrieved the gun for me.

I could see the bear’s body through the hole where the door knob was supposed to be. He didn’t seem like he was in any mood to give up his quest. I didn’t want to kill the beast, but I felt that I needed to protect myself and Jenny. So, reluctantly, I aimed the gun through the door knob opening and fired four shots in quick succession. The bear reacted as if it had been stung by a bee. Instead of a squeal of pain, the sound emanating from his throat was one of a mournful growl.

However, he did retreat from the door and bounded into the woods.

To be continued…