Decent week - two hilly runs of 7 and 8 miles, a bit of weightlifting, a tiny bit of bouldering on my backyard wall and helped a friend move, cut and grind 3600 pounds of steel.
Had an all time bear sighting the first run. I was running along the trail and a 25-30 pound cub walked across the trail about 100 feet in front of me from right to left. No sign of mom, so I stopped to wait, but she still didn't come, so I assumed baby was following her, rather than the other way around. I looped off trail to the right around a small hill, making plenty of noise but staying out of sight of where the mom was (I wanted her to hear me, but not see me). Then I crept around the hill and saw mom, reared back on her haunches (that is standing sort of upright) with her ears twitching this way and that and her nose sniffling and her eyes searching. She was on high alert, but still couldn't see me through the bushes. I walked out of sight again and came up on the trail about 100 feet away from her. She went back down on all fours and kept watching me and, as I backed away, decided I was no threat and went back to eating flowers with baby bear.
That is the first time I've ever seen a bear rear up like that in dozens (probably well over 100) bear sightings. I knew from reading that this not an aggressive pose, like you might see in an old movie, but an information gathering position, but it was really fun to see in action.
And BTW, any time you see a bear walking on its hind legs in a movie or circus, know that bear has most likelyy been tortured. They have typically been chained in a stress position similar to the torture positions in the CIA rendition sites. A wild bear rears back onto it's haunches and gets tall, but doesn't typically stand on it's hind legs unless it has some other problem (e.g. the famous bear in New Jersey that had injured forelegs).
