Barely anyone but a bear

I took a solo ride on Tiger Mountain today during lunch. I’ve been exploring the trails there and there’s a lot of miles to explore. Today I went up a trail that starts next to Issaquah High and circles around west Tiger Mountain. It was a great day for a ride. Cool, but not raining, for the most part. Sun breaks and gentle breezes. Only saw two couples the whole time a young Asian couple holding hands and smiling at each other and an older couple who were walking so far apart I didn’t see the husband until the wife was out of sight. Funny how time changes things… Anyway, it was a great time to be on the mountain. Few people, great weather, great trails. Nice…

I got to the top where the power lines run and there are a lot of roads and trails that branch off there. I headed back towards my apartment and ran up against a steep drop off right into I-90. Backtracked onto another road that looked like it was headed in the right direction and paused for a rest. When I looked ahead I saw a big black bear on the road about 100 yards ahead. He looked huge. Bigger than the black bears you see in the zoo or something. I’ve never seen such a large black bear. The last time I saw a black bear in the wild was September 20, 2001 in Glacier National Park. He wasn’t nearly so big, but then, I was in a car, protected and safe. He may have just looked huge because I was so exposed. Well, I needed to get back, didn’t want to back track. So, I whistled really loud and talked to myself like a crazy dude. The bear disappeared so I rode forward. When I came around a bend, there he was again, about the same distance. So, I whistled again, and talked to myself again. This time I watched him go off the road. I approached slowly, yelled to myself loudly, and rode past where he went off the road. Now, had that been a grizzly… If there were grizzly bears in Washington state, I’d have turned around and rode away as fast as possible… Yessirree…