Mentor Trek Day 2 – Noel’s Bear Encounter

The shooting for the day concluded with the whale watching tour, so I headed back to our hotel room. Noel had been in the room all day for the most part and was getting restless for some activity. He declares, “I’m going for a run!” I said, “Ooh, you should head out on the water front and go right. Eagles hang out along the shore.” But what does he do? Unknown to me, he ignores my suggestion completely and heads left, in the direction of the Mt. Roberts Tram, the waterfront crowded with tourists, and the trail he spotted the previous day. About 45 minutes later, he's back, sprinting through the hotel room door, and bursts out, “I saw a bear!” He was about 10 minutes up the hill, taking in the surroundings of the trail that sadly was littered with junk and large-scale abandoned items – obviously not kept up for tourists. He was going at a good pace, when he ran past a bear searching through garbage. Noel slowly put on the brakes and thought, “Wow, there’s a bear! Why don’t I have my camera?”
But reality set in within seconds when he realized that he was alone on an isolated trail, and to get down the trail he’d have to pass the bear again, which was more or less blocking his descent. Keeping his wits about him, and remembering some stuff he’d just read about bear encounters, he didn’t run, slowed down, and jumped up and down to make himself look imposing. When that didn’t work and the bear continued to stare him down, he started picking up large rocks from the trail and pitching them at objects around the bear, but not at the bear. He said he continued this act for up to 5 minutes, when he finally threw a rock that hit a large, rusting camper shell. It made a loud noise and splashed pooled water from the earlier rains, and this finally drove the bear off away from the trail and Noel’s exit. Noel then headed straight down the hill at an adrenaline-fueled pace and didn’t stop running until he entered our room.