You know you live in bear country when...

...your kids come home from school with bear alert notices.

In the late summer/early fall the bears are hungry and fattening themselves up to prepare for the long winter hibernation.
They feast on the ripe wild chokecherries, saskatoon and huckleberries and raid the local apple, pear, cherry and plum trees.
Residents are forced to lock down their garbage to prevent marauding bears from rooting through the refuse.

Bear sightings in the autumn are frequent.
The most common are the smaller black bears that flourish in the valley.
Grizzly bears prefer the high country and sightings are less common, but they will travel to lower elevations to find food at this time of year.
A black bear would rather run when encounted by a human, but a grizzly would not hesitate to attack in order to protect its territory and its young.

Last Friday evening, while on our bike ride, we encountered bear signs, such as scat (poo) and hair, along the trail.
I also heard a bear's distict woof from across the gully as we rode along the ridge, and we made certain that we caused as much noise as possible so not to surprise any dangerous wildlife along the way.

I have discovered that singing and mountain biking can be a challenge, especially when pedaling up a long, steep grade...

At the same time, my husband found himself stranded at the post golf tournament party when his ride left him there.
He decided to walk the seven or eight miles home, but had to do a bit of bushwacking in order to reach the highway.

Along the way he met a black bear...

"Yikes, a bear!", thought he.
"Yikes, a drunk golfer!", thought the bear.

The bear crashed off into the bush in one direction and my husband fled in the opposite, ripping the seat from his pants while leaping a barbed wire fence and skidding down the hill, before reaching the edge of the road.
Luckily enough, a kind motorist gave him a ride home the rest of the way.

This is a fine example of some of the challenges we encounter here in the mountains...