Has anyone ever come across a bear while MUni'ing? Well, I did the other
day, scared the ........ out of me. I was riding my hour loop up
Highlands Mtn. late in the afternoon. I had pushed hard up the vertical
section, about 1,000' vertical, and was on the downhill. This part of
the downhill is singletrack, very narrow and deep singletrack. The
pedals hit the sidewalls if you don't keep it in the middle. The sun was
filtering through the quaking aspen trees, onto the vibrant red indian
paintbrush and purple lupine flowers. The track was soft and the
MUni'ing was really fun. Downhill switchbacks through the forest, just
me and nature... so I thought. I came around a corner pretty fast, and
there it was. A HUGE brown bear, approx. 300 pounds in the trail.
Obviously he had heard me coming, because it was in the middle of
turning away from me. I dismounted and became very BIG and vocal. It
turned and ran away, thank god. I was blown away at how fast it was, it
disappered in two or three seconds. The ground rumbled as it ran away.
I was glad that it had other plans for dinner. I still had a mile or so
of single track left, I didn't think going back uphill was a good choice
so I continued downhill. For the next 20 minutes I sang to the bear,
loudly. It reminded me of when I was a kid walking in the dark, scared
sh....less. It seemed that head was spinning 360's trying to look for
the bear as I rode. I made it to the pavement, and checked my shorts.
Since then, we have seen many different bears around our neighborhood,
but none in the wild on the trail like that day. This bear encounter
happened the same day that my daughter caught a trophy rainbow trout in
a creek above Aspen. It was truly a blessed day for me, life is good.
Cheers. 😄
--
aspenmike - unicycling albino
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