At night in the woods everything sounds like a bear approaching. I have an embarrassing tale about a bear attack that turned out to be a mouse eating my snacks. Ironically bears don’t sound like bears. Their fleet of foot, you can barely here them pass. Naughty kids when they see bears are kind of quiet too.

We are sitting, using the suns dying light to write case notes. The kids are over by their shelters preparing for the night they are tired and starting to become loud and inappropriate. None of us really care that much, as there is no one but us for miles. We too have been walking all day and are tired, and our bed rolls are surprisingly comfortable. Because correcting their behavior would require energy we limit our interventions to an occasional redirection when we feel that some arbitrary line has been crossed with their banter.  Though its mainly just to remind the kids we haven’t fallen asleep.

Suddenly all is quiet, there is not a sound coming from the naughties. This is bad. Things are never quite. Someone is getting raped, or we are about to get murdered, or worse. We are alert and outside of our tarp in a flash. We look around, but we can see no one. An eternity passes as we try to understand what’s happening, then we hear the first whistle. Soft at first but then harsh and shrill. Then another, then another. Soon six whistles are sounding the alarm.

We give the kids emergency whistles. They are for blood, bee’s and bears. The whistle are the one thing the kids take seriously.

I see a gray (formerly black) face poke out from under a tarp. It points to the tree line and mouths bear. I spin around and there is a bear. A small one. A few hundred pounds at best. I can’t believe it is so close.

I want a better look.

I grab a camera and start walking towards it. It sees me and takes off running. I decide to follow. I enter into a chase. I hear one of my partners behind me. We are moving quickly through the forests. We run for two or three minutes, the bear always a few hundred feet ahead. “Wait” I hear my buddy and stop. He is short of breath, I too am breathing hard “What do we do if we catch it?” I haven’t thought this far ahead. “Take a photo” I offer. “Great we are going to get mauled for a photo.” He is right we are dumber than the kids. We turn around and start back in the direction of camp. It has started to get dark. In a few minutes of walking we realize we are lost. I forbid him to yell for help. No one can know we have been so stupid. A quarter hour of stumbling around in the increasing darkness we arrive back in camp. Embarrassed at being so amateur we try and avoid the kids.

We crawl back into the tarp. Our colleague is in disbelief. “Man you guys are insane.” He is correct. “That was really cool, I thought we were dead, and you guys chase that thing off.” He has to be kidding “That was brave. Thanks.” He is new, he knows no better. Thank god. The kids come over one by one. We are their hero’s. They too think we chased the bear away. They are keen to help us for the first time all week. They offer to carry some of our weight in the morning. I go to sleep knowing the kids will not try and escape tonight.