The One Where: The Bear Chased Us

Hello September! Ya’ll, I love the month of September so much, and in honor of my love for it, I’m turning it into a theme month. I was one of those people that watched every episode of Friends, and every episode started out with “The one where.”

Three weeks ago, my husband, my daughter, and I went for a hike. We decided that every Sunday after church, we would venture out and hike at a different spot. We drove a little ways out and found a place that offered zip lining as well as a 3-mile trail.

Families were having a good time, and small children were bike riding and having the time of their life.

As we marched towards our entry point to the trail, we saw a memorial set up in remembrance of a young lady named Meredith. It seems as though she was last seen at this particular location.

We continued to the trail.

More-like hobbled to the trail. My thighs were on fire from leg day on Saturday, and my husband’s calves were crippling his every move because of the same reason. So our ten year old laughed as she called us old. She showed off her skills and young legs by skipping and running in front of us.

When we made it a mile into the trail, I just so happen to look up. I  grabbed my daughter pulled her as close to me as I possibly could. I squinted my eyes to get a better look at what was a few 100 feet in front of us.

I said to daughter “what is that”

She said, “Mommy, I think that’s a bear.”

Right at that moment, the bear looked at me as I frighteningly looked at him. I think he was just as socked to see us as we were to see him. He briefly glared at us and turned the other way. We hoped and prayed that he wouldn’t reconsider his decision and come to get us.

My husband just reacted and totally took over the situation. He grabbed me and said, slowly turn around, get in front of me and move as fast as you can. I pulled or daughter in front of me and said, go, babe, lead us out of here.

We moved as fast as we could, and all I kept hearing is my husband yell knees up, knees up. We jumped over all the roots in the ground. Sweat was pouring down my face, and my heart was beating a mile a minute. I had my right hand on my fanny pack and ready to unzip it and take my phone and keys out to hand to my daughter. If the bear grabbed me, I wanted her to be able to make it to the car and call for help.

As she ran in front of me, I just started praying for God to get us out of this situation. We were a mile deep and trapped with a big black bear!

We made it to a dead end and took a sharp left. Almost immediately, I saw a break in the trees, and sunlight was beaming on our faces. At last, we made it to concrete. We ran a mile in 6 minutes, but felt like hours.

When we made it back, we saw smiling faces and familiar scenes. Not to mention our car!

I turned around so that I could see my husband’s face, and to my surprise, he was holding a huge red brick. Still clenching it tightly in his hands, “he said, I promise, the two of you would’ve made it out of here if the bear chased us.” He slowly let the brick fall to the ground, and I could tell he was reluctant to do so.

We jumped in the car and took off as fast as we could. Locking the doors behind us!

When we made it about a mile into our drive, I turned around.

I looked at my daughter’s sweet little face and asked her, “are you okay.”

With a huge smile from ear to ear, she said, ” yes, I’m fine; I knew we weren’t going to die from a bear attack.” She stared at me with a look of certainty and continued to say, ” I couldn’t picture myself dying like that.”

We parked in our garage, and she ran out of the car so she could tell her brother and sister the exciting news. Well, as for my husband and I. We sat in the car, still in shock with lifeless bodies. We just stared at each other, having a complete conversation with only the dead look in our eyes.

You could have chosen any blog to read, but you chose mine, and I’m honored!

~Belladonna~