The west has big horned sheep.
Australia has kangaroos.
You get the picture, right? Every area of the world has some overwhelming representation of an animal that the rest of the world is amazed by.
Well, western North Carolina has black bears. Most of our stress for bird seed is keeping it bear safe with assurances that they won't get into our house. They love love love finch seed, but mangling any birdfeeder is a hobby of theirs.
Despite the fact it's a dirt road, this particular road is a fantastic shortcut up between my valley and the Blue Ridge Parkway, and plenty of people use it to hike, bike, etc. Black bears apparently think it's considerably easier to use getting down to the Wendy's dumpster as well.
So there he was. In the way. Finding rubbish and hoping for a good hamburger. While I've seen a good deal many bears so far, never have I seen one this close. I mean, like 6 feet close.
Here's where deer, big horned sheep, and kangaroos are remarkably different. All of those animals tend to pose. Also, when they feel threatened, they run away. This is a very important distinction from Mr. Bear. It would seem that my car was a little close for his sensibilities and he jumped at my car with his mouth open and growled!!!!!!! We will discuss the insanity that I felt it necessary to take a photo of that later, but in my defence, it just happened. Nowhere did I think "Oh, that's really cool that the bear is attacking my car; I'll get a photo of his big teeth....."
Actually, I was shaking pretty badly, evidenced by the blurriness! I was so totally freaked. Deer never did that! Why did he? Big horned sheep just stand more majestically when they see a lens. Mr. Bear, however, was not impressed with my lens. Never was I more clear in that moment just how much damage a bear could cause to me if I had been actually standing in the road as his gigantic paws thudded down.
I was very unhappy.
He was very unhappy.
We parted ways.
