Bear and Bare Butt – Our Vacation gave us both.

Since taking vacations aren’t quite what they used to be or for many happening right now, I thought I’d share a funny story with you about a vacation I took a few years ago.

This is a story about my close encounter with a bear and a bare butt.

A short vacation my husband and I took a couple of years ago, ended in a way we couldn’t have imagined. For me a holiday involves going somewhere in nature – hiking, biking, kayaking, going to some waterfalls … My husband and I did something different for us, though, we took our bikes and went into the back country, biking along an old road.

It was an absolutely beautiful area. We biked down this old road, following a river for most of it. We had the most amazing views of some waterfalls, mountains, deer, birds and that peaceful sound and silence that only nature can give you. It was awesome.

The first part was easy and uneventful

The first part of our trek was fairly flat with some hill climbing but it wasn’t too bad. Yet. The mountain to the left is the one we ended up biking up. At about mile three, we started to ride up the long, windy, fairly steep road. We were in the mountains so we knew there would be some tough areas. Anyway, at one point we’d both run out of steam. We were now at about 6 miles and on a rather steep climb, so we stopped. We were standing there admiring the beauty and serenity when we hear this loud growling sound. It was sounding way too close. We both looked at a point over the edge of the road. It dropped off there and was a steep incline. There was a lot of grass and trees. We couldn’t see what was making the sounds but the tall grass and brush was moving. Rather aggressively, I might add. Something was coming up the hill towards us and was rather large and noisy. The snuffling and growling got much closer. It didn’t take much to convince us it was a bear, although we didn’t stick around to confirm that. We turned and rode down the mountain. We passed a few people on the way to be aware there was a bear in the area.

The really funny part

This story takes a bizarre turn. As as we rode down, we came upon about seven groups of hikers with 2 to about 10 people in their respective parties. We slowed to let them know there was a bear up ahead. Each one responded with, ‘good to see you have your clothes on’ or ‘glad you’re not bare’. It seemed rather random and bizarre. After we’d passed a few groups but kept hearing the same thing, we finally stopped and asked what they were talking about. We were told, ‘a bike rider came through a few minutes ago, bare naked’. We laughed so hard about it. I said, ‘well we experienced a real bear and they got to see a whole different kind of bare’.

Bare Butt … Why?

It was one of those events that was just too bizarre and too funny. I have no idea where the naked man came from as we hadn’t passed him on the road on our way up. Or for that matter, on the way out. The group said he was riding pretty fast. The only thing we can figure is that the bear passed by, near where he was camping. The point he’d come from was at the base of the mountain where we’d encountered the bear near the top.

At some point, I think that some part of this has to make it into one of my novels. What do you think?

Other Vacations

It seems vacations might be a bit of a fodder for my stories. The idea for my suspense/thriller, Tainted Waters really came from the camping trip from hell. You can read about it here.

It could make for an interesting twist in a story – meeting the bear and the bare butt. 🙂 We’ll see what kind of story it leads to.

Fact sometimes just beats fiction.

Have you ever had something odd like that happen on your vacation?

To read more about my story ideas and settings I use, click on the links below.

Multi-Award winning author, Maggie Thom. Author of The Caspian Wine Series – Captured Lies (Book of the Month - LAS Reviews and Reader's Favorite Finalist), Deceitful Truths and Split Seconds (Award Winning) – and her other published novels, Tainted Waters (Suspense and Thriller Book of the Year through Turning the Pages Magazine), Deadly Ties, Fractured Lines and her new series - The Twisted Deception Series. Click here to learn more.

And her Free eBook - Blurred Lines.

Her motto: Read to escape… Escape to read…

"Maggie Thom writes a fast paced thriller laced with romance that keeps the reader interested and on edge!" InDtale Magazine

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2 Comments

Jane Risdon on April 8, 2021 at 2:55 am

That was funny. I wonder why he was bare? You have the best adventures. Thanks so much x
- Maggie Thom on April 11, 2021 at 6:18 am
  
  Hi Jane. I have had a few odd ones that is for sure. I truly have no idea as to his state of dress but obviously he wanted to enjoy nature, naturally or he got caught off guard. 🙂

Bear and Bare Butt – Our Vacation gave us both