This was not the adventure we had wanted this morning. We got up this morning and we loaded into the truck this morning so that I could pick up my son this afternoon. We stopped for coffee and headed down the road. Not a mile out of town we befell a large chunk of mother nature.
We were heading around a blind inside corner with steep slopes on the uphill side. Something large and brown lumbered down this steep hill. I sent my brother a text with this picture and said. "Biggest F'ing Bear I ever seen".
I estimate we were doing about 30mph when we saw this large male brown bear. It looked about 400lbs, cute fiancee thinks it was more of a 500 pounder. I edged to the middle of the road, thank goodness there was no uphill traffic, and had slowed down some but the animal had come down the hill and had too much momentum, and couldn't help but get in front of us. Blam, lucky for us and the bear we shoved him down the road instead of pining him under the truck. The bear went skidding down the road on it's side. I edged the truck back to the right side of the road, and saw out of the corner of my eye, the bear clawing over the guard rail. We pulled into a turn out that was right there and I got out to see the damage. I could tell there was some because I could hear the edge of the front bumper rubbing on the tire.
I got out of the car and I could hear the bear going through the brush below. I do damage estimates on cars all day at work and started looking over what was damaged. There was a hissing noise and green fluid coming from the front of the vehicle so I piled back into the car and drove it back home so I didn't have to tow it.
When we hit the bear, the cute fiancee said "that is the ugliest brown dog I have ever seen", no honey that is a big damn bear.
I can see it in slow motion in my memory now, and how odd it was to see this huge bear sliding head first down the road. I doubt that the bear went unhurt but they are pretty stout animals.
At odd times last summer we had bears in the trash outside the cabin. This one looked similar to the big male I shoo'd out last year.
Cute fiancee tensed pretty good so she is sore tonight.
I wonder what the CHP officer thought as I told him the story of us hitting a bear. I had the feeling the lady at my insurance was thinking "yeah right" when I told her the story to make arrangements for repair.
I also had a study in human thinking today as I carried my camera around showing the damaged truck. The ladies at work would look at me and say "you hit what", or "NOO??" then they would all ask how the bear was. The guys would go to the primal instincts side and say "mmm bear jerky", or "bearskin rug"....lol
We are counting our blessing in this. I have a $500 deductible that I barely have, but will gladly pay, because if we had been driving our low to the ground Geo Metro that bear would have been in the car with us, and this story would have a different ending.
I should never have gotten that "bear claw" pastry, this morning at the convenience store when we stopped for coffee this morning. Cute fiancee just said "thank goodness the insurance policy doesn't have a 'bear clause'.." lol
Count your blessings indeed!
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