Katharina Buczek
Last year, this twenty-seven-year-old woman went on an annual fishing and camping trip with her husband, her friend Alex, and Alex’s girlfriend.
And even though she thinks that Alex’s girlfriend is a really sweet person, she quickly realized that the girlfriend is not an outdoorsy person and can be very absent-minded at times. It was also the girlfriend’s first time going on the trip– which led to a scary encounter.
And, of course, it all began when they went for a hike in bear country during peak bear season.
“Normally, this is not an issue, but you have to be vigilant and know what to do if you do encounter a bear!’ she said.
So, before they even went out on the hike, she asked Alex if he had given his girlfriend the low-down on what to do during a bear encounter. Alex revealed he had not, so she plunged into the details.
“I explained that if you see a grizzly bear– the most common in the area– do NOT scream and do NOT run,” she recalled.
“Avoid eye contact or sudden movement and back away slowly if they are not moving. And she did listen, but I could tell she was kind of blowing me off. She also was not interested in carrying bear spray or learning how to use it.”
Nonetheless, the group ventured out on their hike, and if you could not have guessed it, they ran into a bear.
They had just veered around a sharp turn in the woods when, all of a sudden, a grizzly was in their view.
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