Da Bears or What’s for Lunch?

My wife and I took a weekend away from everyone and everything to relax. Of course, my idea of relaxing included taking a hike up the side of a mountain. Not a bad climb and there was a relaxing lake at the top. We were in Northwest New Jersey and yes, there are mountains in New Jersey. It’s not all Jersey Shore ya know!

We were warned of bears in the area so we played a little music on the way down and made sure we were vocal around bends in the trail so we don’t surprise or get surprised by, da bears. And guess what…we saw none!

But, at the bottom of the trail was a condominium complex for vacationers and skiers. And guess where the bears were? Going out for lunch of course! We were walking along not thinking of bears at this point and out from around the back of the dumpster came a mother and three cubs!

She looked at us, we backed away. The cubs wanted lunch and we were not on the menu so momma bear opened the dumpster, climbed in and got some take out. They munched until someone came along honking the car horn and cleared the way for us to pass. What a sight. It was my first bear experience! Very cool.

13 thoughts on “Da Bears or What’s for Lunch?”

Nice sighting! You would probably enjoy this post: http://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/another-guest-at-the-birdfeeder-3-2/

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trail-hike-life on August 7, 2012 at 2:47 pm said:

Thanks! Great post also.

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- Exposing the Big Game on August 7, 2012 at 2:49 pm said:
  
  Thank you–I enjoyed your story of your bear sighting
  
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That has to be a bit scary encountering a mother bear an her cubs. You never know just how they’ll react especially with young. Love the photos.

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trail-hike-life on August 7, 2012 at 6:41 pm said:

Agreed. We were pretty close when they first came out of the brush. Luckily, I saw them and we backed up calmly. She looked up, but was fine when she saw we were not a threat.

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