The Infamous Hike

I wanted to fill you all in our first big adventure . . . it all beings one beautiful evening in the mountains of New Hampshire. Brenna was here for her first visit and being the adventurous ones we are, we decided to take a hike through the wilderness. Rock, Brenna, Copper, and I were making our way through the woods. We played in a beautiful waterfall bedded with rocks so the water was crystal clear. We played the name game while laughing and carrying on. We decided it was time to head back as the heavy tree cover was making our surroundings appear darker than it actually was. With Copper and Rocky in the lead we were about a 10 min walk from the jeep.
The next thing I know, Rocky is yelling . . . "there's a bear!" as he is sprinting by me and away from the bear leaving me and Brenna to fend for ourselves. That's my brave man :) Sure enough I look ahead just in time to see the back end of a decent sized (looked huge to us! probably the biggest there is!) black bear 50 yards in front of us crossing the path and heading back into the woods. Then, of course, Copper takes off after the bear to protect us from the monster. That's my brave girl!!! (brave, but dumb - that bear was huge!) Well, since Rock is running away, I turn and run away after yelling for Copper, my baby, to come back and Brenna, finally realizing what was going on turn and followed suit.
We get down the path and around the bend away from the
bear . . . I'm still freaking out cause my dog has yet to return, Rock's eyes are about to pop out of his head, and Brenna is looking for a tree to climb. Luckily, our body guard comes trotting back down the path towards us with her ears perked up and her tongue happily hanging out of her mouth (if dogs could smile, she would have had a huge grin on her face). Even more luckily, the bear did not follow her back to us.
Now that I have my dog back in one piece, I am able to relax and rationally say, "lets just wait here for a few minutes, Copper probably chased it farther into the woods, so we'll just give it time to move on." With Copper in the lead (on a leash this time) followed by me, then Brenna, and Rock not far behind, we made our way down the path toward the jeep. The 3 of us probably looked like sneaking burglars from the Disney workout video we did when we were little (does anyone else remember that or is that one my solo childhood memories). Hilarious!
Well, obviously we all made it out alive with no physical scars. Once we got to the jeep Brenna and I busted up in tense laughter while Rocky complained of a stomachache from swallowing his chew. Once home we looked up what exactly to do in the event you encounter a bear - and surprisingly enough - we did everything you are NOT suppose to do.
What to do when you see a black bear: carry EPA approved pepper spray, do not run - bears can run 35 mph, if they come toward you get big and make noise, hit them with a stick or gouge out their eyes (yes, it really said to do that - and told you how), do not climb trees.
What we did: Ran, yelled for Copper, looked for trees to climb, had no pepper spray, and peed our pants!
Rocky's explanation for running was that even though a bear might (yes he said "might") be able to out run him, he could out run both me and Brenna. Awww, that's my brave man.