Our first bear sighting!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am pretty bear-phobic. In my head there's a bear at every turn and behind every bush and they all are coming for my kids. So I am usually ever-so-slightly on edge when we are out hiking. An exception is Arctic Valley. I don't feel so nutty out there because there are big mountains for a good hike, but it is very open with mostly knee-high shrubbery. You can see a long ways there...to spot any lurking bears.

So we were hiking along, Mike, Stella, Lola and me (with Brennan on my back), and passed two ladies who told us about this "darling" black bear on the ridge of the mountain beside us. They said he had been walking the ridge line with them. So we scanned the mountain and saw him! It was the first bear I have ever seen outside of a zoo. And he was far enough away that I wasn't scared of someone being eaten. I did insist we turn back after we spotted him so I could keep an eye on him and make sure we weren't going to cross paths. Hopefully my bear dramatics will subside after being in Alaska for a while.

It was pretty cool to spot a bear out in the wild! I feel like I should get my official Alaskan card now.