You wouldn’t want to walk three quarters of a mile in their shoes.
Geoffrey Zhou, 21, said he was recently hiking with four friends along the Howe Sound Crest Trail in Vancouver, Canada, when they spotted a large black bear.
“We first noticed the bear when we caught a glimpse of a dark shadow emerging from the fog,” the engineering student at the University of British Columbia recounted to SWNS.
“It stayed at a constant pace, so we hiked back at a slightly faster pace as to not alarm it while maintaining distance.”
Zhou said the bear slowly followed his group for close to half an hour, forcing them to hike about three quarters of a mile up the trail backwards — until they were able to hide behind a bush.
“After around a kilometer we were able to find a part of the trail which had a gradual slope up the mountain on the side,” Zhou continued.
“I directed my friends to climb up and crouch down behind the shrubs. They were shocked and wanted to run.”
Zhou said he had wilderness training and knew what to do.
“As we were hiding behind the shrubs, I informed my friends to take off their packs in the event that it charged up at us,” he recalled.
“I would empty the bear spray on it, and we would make a run for it, possibly throwing our packs at it to create some distance.”
But the bear spray was unnecessary, because as Zhou tells it, the bear passed by the group without incident even as it was less than 15 feet away.
Also in Vancouver, a so-called “Coke Bear” is being accused of guzzling 69 cans of soda it swiped from a woman’s vehicle.
And a North Carolina man recently reported coming face-to-furry-face with a big black bear scoping him out on his patio.