If We Were Having Coffee on 8-8-2020

54 Replies

Coffee Share new Hampshire in the Summer

Hello and Welcome!  Let’s go over here to the table and look off in the woods.  Beautiful, isn’t it?  the large hill, all green?  Of course you can see the trails the dogs have made, with a little help from yours truly.  It is a beautiful day.  It will get warm (86 F/30C), but not super humid, so nice. Right now, though, it is still cool.  Cool and green.  Where are we?  Some of you may recognize that photo as being from New Hampshire.

It was a busy week.  Most are ;)  There was work, of course.  I did a lot of writing.  Stuff around the house.  The tropical storm missed us, but we still had a bout of strong winds.  Thankfully the storm pulled all of our humidity with it!  It was hot (mid 90s F) and super humid, so a few cool days were welcome!

Over the last few days I continued my typical exercise routine and ran Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.  On my Friday run, I cam around a corner and came face to face with a large critter.  (Face-to-face means I stopped running towards it when I was about 15 or 20 feet away (6 m or so).)  It was a very large critter.  Huge.  No, smaller than a moose, which occasionally show up in town.  OK, if you didn’t guess it, it was a black bear, I’m assuming from the size that it was an adult male.  I have never seen one from quite this close.  Impressive.  Also impressive how fast it ran into the woods and triple impressive how little noise it made as it rushed through the dense undergrowth of the woods!  I often wonder how often I pass close to animals like this without realizing it…

Anyway, it is too beautiful of a day to sit here, so I am going to go out and do :)

Thanks for stopping by!  If you have a coffee share, I will try to stop in and say hi.

Have a great weekend.

The coffee share is hosted over on Eclectic Alli.  The link to join is here.

54 thoughts on “If We Were Having Coffee on 8-8-2020”

    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I hate WordPress sometimes! I wrote a long reply and suddenly your comment went to trash and my reply was gone!

      I was pretty surprised to (almost literally) run into a bear, but luckily the bear was just as surprised ;) Actually, black bear very rarely cause problems, and the entire encounter was maybe 5 seconds from when I realized it was a bear until it disappeared into the woods, so more being amazed than frightened.

      I do see some wildlife on my runs, though mostly deer and turkey, though I once saw a bobcat (18 kg wildcat) and what was possibly a rattlesnake (it rattled, but I did not see the rattles) – rattlesnakes are very, very are in my area. Bear are not rare – they are very common.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks. It was very cool to see the bear, but, yeah, I am glad it decided to go the other way… And that the storm ended up going the other way as well – we were initially in the bullseye. Nice seeing you back here again :)

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Yep, a little one could have changed things, though with black bears, unless you are totally stupid (and people are very stupid!), a momma bear would be more apt to chase a person away from the cubs than to actually attack. A Grizzly? I would not take my chances!

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I’m glad I didn’t literally run into it… ;) It was pretty amazing. There are a lot of bear around here, and I wonder if that is what they are smelling sometimes when they act so funny. I assumed it was coyote, or perhaps bobcats, but it is very possible bear come closer into town than I thought (I was less than a quarter of a mile from our village!) I do not want to find out what they’d do if they saw one!

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      1. SHL2

        Animals respond weird sometimes. They might be scared OR Inquisitive OR take off after it. I figure mine would take off and have to check it out. Zoee has this new thing about birds in her yard or the bird baths.

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  8. dprastka

    I’m so happy the storm missed you as those big hurricanes sure sound scary! And what a SURPRISE on your run. It’s amazing how quietly it sauntered off into the forest! Interesting observation, does make you wonder if they haven’t been close by but not noticed. Thanks for the coffee this weekend! And I’m glad it cooled off a bit for you there! 😃

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Being on the East Coast I’ve seen a few tropical storms and hurricanes. They can be scary, particularly on Cape Cod. But then, the windiest I’ve seen it there had nothing to do with tropical storms, so… (sustained winds at over 100 mph). Seeing the bear was very cool, and do wonder how often they are close by when I hike. They are very common in this area, so I’m sure I’ve been pretty close, but how close? Same with bobcats (I have seen one) and other critters (look up fisher cat). The cool weather has been great, though it will be in the mid-90s by the middle of the week. Oh well, it is still summer :) I hope you are having a great weekend and have a good week ahead :)

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Black bears very rarely attack people. Grizzly bears do a bit more often, and they are much bigger! But even a Grizzly would rather avoid people than attack. I’m not sure about bear in Europe. I know wolves in Europe are more likely to attack people than the wolves here, but I think it is even rare over there. Black bears are actually very common in this area, and I know people who see them all of the time, but this was the first time I have ever seen one up close, except at a zoo.

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      1. Piglet in Portugal

        I’m not sure we have bears in europe, than God! Foxess, yes. But I’ve not seen a wolf. The fox who decided to visit by garden while I was eating my breakfast got the fright of its life when I growled and then roared at it. I’ve never seen anything leap a gate from a standing position. I don’t know who was more surprised him or me.

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        1. trentpmcd Post author

          I looked it up – Europe has brown bears, which are closely related to our Grizzly Bears, so more aggressive. They are pretty rare in Western Europe, not on the British Isles at all, nor Portugal, but there populations in the mountains in Spain, so not too far from you. And there are wolves at the border between Spain and Portugal, so ;) I was wrong, American and European wolves are the same species, so I don’t know if it is just the myths and fairy tales that make European wolves out to be so aggressive, but they are not in North America (wouldn’t want to run into a wild wolf pack, but…).

          Funny about the fox – I bet he was much more surprised than you!

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Funny, but I really didn’t have time to be scared, though I did cross the street until I was well past where it went into the woods! I’m not too surprised it didn’t want trouble – black bears rarely do – but still glad it was more worried about me than I was of it… (I say “it”, but I’m 90% sure it was male, because males can get a lot bigger, and this was huge!)

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Black bears very rarely tangle with people unless there is a problem. It was cool, but, yeah, I’m glad he didn’t want to start anything…. Hope you are having a great weekend :)

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      lol, About an hour after the encounter I was talking to a neighbor and she said the exact same thing. I never felt threatened, and luckily there are no Grizzly Bears around here ;)

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I do love running into nature, though perhaps not literally ;) Typically my encounters are with much smaller critters as well – even a big buck deer weighs a lot less! Thanks. You too, have a good week.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I wish he would have hung out for a few more seconds so I could have a better look ;) lol. Black bears very rarely bother with people, but I had started to scoot to the other side of the road as soon as I recognized what it was and before it took off.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I was about 5 1/2 miles into a 6 mile run, so… Actually, I wasn’t that nervous, though I did cross to the other side of the road until I was well past where it went into the woods ;) No such thing as being too cautious…. By the way it ran into the woods, I’m sure it was much more frightened of me than I of it.

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  20. Writing Sparkle

    Well that certainly adds to the fun of a run! I am always conscious of the possibility of coming face to face a bear when we hike while camping but so far we haven’t. I think I worry a bit to much about that when I should be wondering about hungry cougars that might drag away one of the bit size children… Anyway, great coffee post that thanks for sharing. I’m just brew up a cup now so hopefully you will get a chance to stop in later. Have a great weekend.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I very rarely worry about the black bears around here, though up on a mountain surrounded by wild blueberries, I’ve thought about it… I hiked in Yellowstone and the Tetons by myself and worried, particularly on the “flatter”, more wooded hikes, the ones where you see large “Grizzly Bear Danger” signs at the trailheads. And, yeah, backpacking or camping in bear country, even in the east, food never ever enters the tent, ever. Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are having a great weekend!

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I think so. I don’t know if it saw me until I skidded to a halt. When i did, it raised it’s front end up a bit, sniffed, and then left so much quicker than I could imagine…

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