Calling All Bears

A traveler's ignorance revealed

One of our neighbors.

I did not know much about bears until Atticus came around. We began having the strangest close encounters once we took to the trails and eventually moved to the White Mountains. The bears we met did not run off at first sight, as you would expect. They did not hiss and gnash their teeth as warnings to us. If anything, they appeared curious, often lingering to watch us.

A favorite initial encounter took place when we were helping friends who owned a motor court. One morning, we saw a mother and two of the tiniest cubs. We sat and watched them for over an hour and then began working. Our job was to clean the screened-in porches of each cabin. These porches were on the rear of the miniature houses and hung over the Pemigewasset River.

We began with the cabin closest to the bears. When we moved to the next, the mother and cubs followed us and climbed the nearest tree. When Atticus and I moved to the third cabin, the bears did as well. And so it went all day.

At one point…