Episode Details

This is a recording of a Black Bear inspecting my recording rig at sunset at Bigelow Meadow Botanical Area, Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Siskiyou County, California.

I left my recording rig in an Aspen thicket at the edge of the meadow to record all day, and went to retrieve it at sunset. Just as I arrived on the far side of the meadow, I saw a Black Bear emerge from the Aspen thicket right where my equipment was. It walked out on the meadow and began grazing on grass as I slowly walked towards it. When I was about 200 feet away it looked up at me, I waved my arms, and it ran off into the forest. It was a pretty big bear with beautiful brown fur(Black Bears come in many colors, not just black), and I felt lucky to see it, and even luckier when I found that though the microphone had been knocked over, it and everything else was undamaged. I think that means that I passed the inspection!