On Saturday Kerstin, Erik, Ben, and I zip car-ed it out to the Delaware Water Gap for some hiking. It was a perfect day and we ascended the 1250 feet to TK point in no time. The hike was going so well that I was able to convince the team to take an unmarked path to extend our loop all the way to a reservoir way north into the valley.
The path, a grown over access road, turned out to be fantastic. It was smooth, level, grassy and meandered through fern and blueberry meadows. After leaving the marked trail, we had made jokes about how that's how every horror movie starts, but the walk was the exact opposite.
Well into the walk, not far from where we hoped to meet the return trail, Ben and I had picked up the pace and gotten about fifty yards ahead of Erik and Kerstin. The wide path allowed us to walk side by side and we were yammering away trying to chew up miles. We plodded around a bend and while Ben was chatting into the path I looked up and saw an enormous bear stepping onto the trail just 25 feet or so ahead of us. I froze and quickly said, "Ben. Bear." He didn't stop so I put grabbed his upper arm. This woke him up and he looked left and right and then across his nose at the enormous black blob right in front of us.
The bear was the largest I have ever seen in person, I estimate 450-500 pounds. The size points to him being a him and he had the slightest white patch in the bib area, which might mean he was older. He stood broadside to us and eerily was not looking at us, like a bar lout whose drunken brain is slowly telling his arms to punch.
Ben and I just stood very still. I don't remember exactly what we said, but I think I said, "Don't run," talking to both Ben and myself. The bear turned and looked us dead in the eye for what felt like ten minutes but was probably one-mississippi. He then turned back to his direction of travel and very slowly walked off the trail, obviously in no sort of hurry.
I pulled out my camera to snap a photo, but he was frequently invisible in the thick brush. And then he was out of site for good.
Ben and I walked back to Erik and Kerstin and told them the whole thing. They had been unable to see the bear because of the bend in the trail. At first they thought we were joking, but I'm not a good enough actor to pull off ashen. The party voted 3 to 1 to turn around and I was forced to retreat from Senor Bear, sans photo. Next time I'm wrassling him (but only after I break Ben's knee so I can escape while it eats him, if need be.)
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