Guy William Welch

Last Saturday I came seconds away from crossing the path of a Black Bear.

I was mountain biking down the Spring Cove single track on the northern slope of Goat Mountain above Bass Lake. Just before the trail widens above the fire access road I heard crashing in the brush to my left. A giant brown mass was running across the hill, perpendicular to the trail, about twenty feet in front of me.

For a split second I thought it was a deer and I threw on the brakes.

Almost as soon as I realized what it was it disappeared down the ravine to the left, never breaking its stride.

There wasn’t time to do anything but stop the bike, and I don’t remember being scared, although looking at my heart rate monitor records later shows that my heart rate jumped 20 beats-per-minute. Perhaps since bears mate in June and July this bear was on its way to an important date. That’s just fine with me!

This is the first direct bear encounter I’ve had in thousands of trail miles at Bass Lake. I’ve seen plenty of bear scat before, but almost always at higher elevations and never this early in the season. Maybe drought conditions are driving bears lower this year, but maybe there’s just more bears out there than ever.

According to the Department of Fish and Game, 327 bear permits were issued for the Southern Sierra last year, with 46 bears taken in Madera County. That’s in comparison to 1989, where bear season was suspended completely.

View my ride Bass Lake (Goat Mountain to 007) on motionbased.com.