The drizzle had stopped and I was able to remove my top layer. Unfortunately when I did I dropped a roll of 36 exposure Kodak film and couldn’t find it. More than the picture of the sunlit field, I miss the shot I took while in Pennsylvania. It had been raining, surprise, and I stopped at a McDonalds for some hot chocolate. While I was finishing up a young boy came up to me: his father in the background, encouraging him on. The little spitfire was all excited about motorcycles and wanted to ask me about the BMW, was I really from New Hampshire, and where was I going. After the question and answer period I asked him if he would like to sit on top of the bike, if his father would allow it. “Can I? Can I?” After I took his picture I realized something was missing, the helmet. He already knew the importance of head protection and was eager to put it on. It is that picture I miss: the little boy with a huge grin, arms outstretched and legs dangling. Priceless.

The switchbacks going up Teewinot are relentless. With the trail being muddy I had to be extra cautious with every step and my full attention was on the soaked ground immediately before me. My time was slower than anticipated, but I was in no rush: the thought of a bivouac on Teewinot was beginning to appeal to me. As I started on a flatter, heavily treed section, I heard a noise. Other hikers? Looking up from the trail to a tree about sixty feet in front of me I saw a brown bear cub hugging a tree about eight feet off the ground. With a peculiar yelp, the cub let go and fell to the forest floor with an audible thud. Cubby wasted no time, as I had been spotted. The bear dashed into the nearby scrub with astonishing speed, considering how small his/her little legs were. Slowly I kept hiking. Senses on full alert. Where there is a cub, there should be a mom. Spotted. Mom had spotted me from near the top of the lodge pole pine and let out a heart stopping roar. Panic. Absolute fear. The mom’s tree was now only about forty feet away. She could see me, but Cubby had disappeared. In horror I watched as she released herself from the tree and essentially fell to the ground. Tree branches were snapping off and flying in all directions. Mom was pissed. She landed with a heavy groan and with her back towards me. Seemingly effortlessly she spun around. We were making eye contact. She stomped the heavy ground repeatedly and dug at the soil below her, an indication of an imminent attack, almost causing me to soil. All the literature says to roll up and act dead. No way. Slowly I raised my camera to hip level and try to take her picture. Whoever would find the camera would be able to put the pieces together. My conversations with Jim raced through my mind, no one would look for me for at least a day. Vivid images of my chest being ripped open, my struggling to crawl to safety, bleeding to death before help arrived, all flashed through my mind. Slowly I kept walking and veered off toward my left. She started to approach me in a calculating way: low to the ground, methodical. What possessed me to talk to her I don’t know, but I said some of the silliest things ever uttered by mankind. “Nice mama bear. You look pretty. Aren’t you beautiful?”, all in a low soothing voice. She kept moving slowly, as did I. She passed by my right side by about ten feet. Honestly, I thought I could not only smell her but sense her staring at me, coldly, as she protected her missing Cubby. Quietly now, after we passed each other, I dared not turn my head. More visions: now my back being clawed into shreds of hanging flesh, legs torn out from under me, it was as if I could already feel the impending pains. A few minutes pass. What is in my hands? When I open them I notice I am holding my 4” knife in my right hand and a small rock in my left hand. When, how, I don’t remember. What use would they have been…little if anything. With effort I stop hiking and cautiously turn around. Witless. Bearless. Still frightened more than I had ever been, I contemplated if I should go straight down or continue on. The summit beckons me. Soon I find myself on a ridge with open vistas and no bears, and my heart rate starts to normalize. “Hi!” Holy f*&^ing sh#@! I scream loud enough to be heard in the next valley. A young man is sitting on a rock ahead of me. He rushes over and apologizes for scaring me and asks if I’m alone. “Well, I am now, but just a few minutes ago I was in company with a bear”. Now he is scared. His two buddies are up head, stuck at a part of the climb requiring basic rock climbing abilities. As the four of us talk the wind whips up and big splotchy snow flakes start to cascade upon us. That does it for the threesome, they are turning around and heading into town.