#HeyBear - Introduce Yourself - My recent interaction with a large black bear in Tahoe

Hi Steemit community! My name is Kirk, but many of my friends call me Bear Grills (not of course the real Bear Grylls) as I get into random adventures and scenarios that are typically gnarly.. so they started calling me that.

Anyways, this was a fun day.

Took a random hike on the NE side of Lake Tahoe and stumbled upon this large black bear.

There was a crashing sound above me up on the hillside behind some boulders and I thought it was probably several deer I had just startled with my footsteps. I walked very quietly toward the sounds of breaking sticks and things, stopping my already slow walk to a halt whenever the sounds stopped.

I edged around a corner and glimpse what seemed to be a large mossy boulder barely moving. Pausing, I watched the area of movement I had just seen and suddenly saw a giant bear snout raise up from behind the chaparral. It began sniffing the air and turned it's head slowly to me. We each stared at each other for a moment when suddenly I heard another set of sounds.

Two hikers.

I gently yelled to them "bear" and motioned to them to quickly and quietly come up the trail to me while pointing up the hill. They understood me fully after a brief hesitation and looking up the slope to see this medium-large bear about 30 feet away.

As the hikers got to where I was, the bear was already descending the slope. It angled its route towards me as it was crossing the trail and gave me another look over. Our eyes met again in a strange mutual understanding that it was the boss.

The bear continued down the hillside as the 2 hikers came back to where I was still standing and we silently watched it walk away into the ambient Redwood forest.

From the look the bear gave me, body language, and it's general temperament, I had the understanding the bear wasn't going to attack.. which is why I pulled out my phone and captured this magestic creature.