The Dichotomy of Bear Bells

We woke up to very thick fog on Sunday – a perfect day to go hiking in the forest. We headed to our old standby hiking trail parking lot about 10:00am. Due to the foggy/misty weather, there weren’t many people around and we expected the wildlife to be a little closer to the trails. Required Squirt attire for the morning must include bear bells.

We started the morning with full intentions of crossing the valley (where many moose hang out and the occasional bear) but ran into another couple talking about a moose on the path a little farther along. Because of the low visibility, higher than expected animal activity and potential moose watching ahead, we decided to stay on the main trail. We thought for sure we the moose would be gone because of the noise Squirt was making and there would be more people on the main path in case we did get in trouble.

Even with the damp weather, it was a very enjoyable morning to be out. Walking along the path all we heard was the tinkle of Squirt’s bells (I wonder how irritating that is to the dog) and all we saw was Squirt’s tummy getting blacker and blacker because of the mud he was kicking up (I didn’t know it was going to be THAT muddy). We did keep a sharp eye out though.

Robert spotted the moose before I did about 30 yards away. She moved off to the East side of the path and the ears were flashing back and forth actually looking a little tense. We slowed down and she charged directly at us. (When moose come at you directly, it is rather intimidating.) We immediately stopped (as did she) and here came two joggers around the bend in the trail. One of them was trying to silence their bell and said there was an agitated momma moose and we said “yep – here she comes!” I think momma heard their bell and saw us on the initial charge.

No time for pictures! We turned around and I quickly removed Squirt’s bear bell heading back from whence we came. Upon the last look back, we saw momma leave the trail and head off into the brush on the other side after following us for a few feet. We walked the other direction for about 30 minutes with no more animal encounters.

Important note to self….bear bells warn bears of impending traffic and anger momma moose into charging. Makes a person question the safety factor in using them.