An Afternoon Adventure

The boys invited a friend over for the afternoon.  They decided to walk out to our dock to go swimming and canoeing.  (We've started letting them do this as long as they follow the rule to wear life jackets every time they are on the dock.)  They walked the long trail through the bush to the dock.  At the dock they are only somewhat visible through the trees and the only way to communicate from the house is by yelling at the top of your lungs.

I could hear their voices and they sounded like they were happily playing.  I was sitting by the big window, when I looked up and saw this:

Those are bears, by the way.  They are exactly at the start of the trail leading to my children.

It was amazing to see, but they were between me and my kids!  I felt a little bit panicky and other than grabbing the camera, I wasn't sure what to do.  :)

I could hear the boys playing, but couldn't see them, and was scared that they were heading back the trail to the house.  I knew that as soon as I would start yelling for the boys, the bears would head into the bush, straight for the boys.

But I started yelling at the top of my lungs: "ELI!  ELI!"
Finally he heard me and answered: "WHAT?"
I yelled: "GO TO MILLERS!"  (Our neighbors across the bay.)
Eli:  "WHAT?"
Me:  "GO TO MILLERS!  THERE ARE TWO BEARS IN THE BUSH!"

At this point, I realized that the boys were probably panicking.  The bears had taken off, but not far.  I could still see a little bit of them nearby in the bush.  So I continued yelling: "YOU'RE OKAY!  THE BEARS ARE RIGHT HERE!  I CAN SEE THEM CLOSE TO ME!"  I yelled reassuring things.  However, I found out later, that the 3 boys were too busy running around and being scared to hear me.

A couple of them were in the water when they heard me say there were bears in the bush and they had to scurry to get out.  Poor Eli had to run up the hill toward the bush to get the canoe paddles.  And even worse, his friend really was panicking and near tears.  I think that actually helped Eli stay calm because he felt responsible to reassure his friend that everything would be fine.  (Evan wasn't panicking because, as he told us later, he didn't hear me and didn't know why they were now getting in the canoe.  He just went along with it.)  They made it into the canoe and their buddy calmed down once they were in it for a bit.  I yelled that they could paddle around for a bit if they wanted, but they said they wanted to go over to the neighbors and come home right away.  So I got in the van to go pick them up.  As I pulled out of our driveway, I saw the two bears running across the road to escape the yelling chaos of the Hochstedler property. (Poor things.)
By the time the canoe was on shore at the neighbors, the boys were calmer and it all quickly became an awesome adventure story:  The brush with death!  The close call with savage beasts!  They are all excited about telling their story tomorrow on their first day of school.

I felt bad because I knew that some of the panic was due to my yelling.  But that was our only form of communication.  Bears are supposed to run away, but lately we've been hearing more stories of bear attacks.  (Not in Red Lake.)  And I just really didn't want the kids to meet a mama bear and her cub on the trail.

I was proud of our kids.  They were brave and responsible and they knew how to get in the canoe and get to the neighbors.  And Eli was a good friend to his buddy.  He told us that his buddy was really scared and that he had to be beside him in the canoe to help him stay calm.  And about the near tears, he said, "Neither of us are going to tell that part of the story at school tomorrow."  :)

So yes, in spite of the beautiful animals just minding their own business near battle with the savage beasts, we are all fine.  Just not so sure about walking the trail to the water anymore...