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Bears and snakes and bees ... oh, boy

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Contributed by: William Kus on 5/1/2008

I have something interesting to blog about finally. It made my day last Sunday at O'Melveny Park.

I was out hiking for a few hours and spotted a large rattlesnake sprawled across the trail. It wouldn't move until I clapped my hands. Even then, it took a good minute for it to leave the trail completely. Maybe it was pregnant.

At that point, I took it as a sign to turn back.

A good thing, too, because on my way back a large, brown, hairy rear-end blocked my way. The hairy rear was attached to a small bear ambling up the path.

Apparently, it did not hear me and I was able to follow it for a minute or so at a distance of about 100 or 200 feet.

It was small by bear standards but when I made some noise to get its attention, I believe I said something like "I wish I had my camera," it turned around.

I'd heard about 100 times that when confronted with a bear, you should raise your arms up to appear larger. As the bear eyed me wearily, I lifted my arms up to appear oh-so menacing.

All I apparently did was probably anger the bear, because he (or she) stood up on its hind legs and I realized that the small bear was about the same height as me.

We stood, gazes locked on each other. A few seconds passed and I decided I was probably provoking the bear, much like I would provoke a person if I were to do the same thing.

Luckily, the bear never faced me completely, it was in a profile. I was ready to test my legs on the downhill, hoping the bear would not be able to catch me if worse came to worse.

The moment I put my arms down, the bear turned and ran down a fairly steep hillside.

I wonder if the heat had caused it to go wandering outside of its normal area, looking for food or water. It may have been that the hot day had kept most of the hikers away from the trails.

When there isn't much traffic on the trails, I notice a lot more animal activity.

I was also almost attacked by a large swarm of bees, but as I approached the bees, they flew away. I don't know why I just walked through them. I probably should have waited for them to go away on their own.

I guess these were L.A. bees and had better things to do.

So to date, I have seen a bear, some coyotes, a bobcat, a bunch of deer, snakes, bees, plenty of different birds, plenty of hares, and lots of flies, fleas and other bugs flying in my ears.

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