I ran away screaming.
I was on a Trail Crew for the US Forest Service up on the CC Divide.
We had been working on a trail and ran into a huge Huckleberry growth.
We came back the next day with a brush saw to clear the Huckleberries.
My Trail Crew partner was about a half mile behind me.
I strapped on my cutting chaps.
I put the saw on the ground to pull the starting cord.
I pulled the cord and a bear exploded out of the bushes.
The training at that time was to get on your stomach.
I ran screaming down the trail.
I don’t know why the bear didn’t take me.
The only reason I can come up with is the sound of the chainsaw motor threw it off.
Wow-you were lucky beyond belief-but I’d have done the same thing, I’m pretty sure-it would be almost impossible to lie on the ground with a bear coming at me...
One time when 1st hubby and I were camping with our cub in N Mexico in the mountains, we had gone into the travel trailer to sleep, unaware that the cub had not only left the tailgate of the Suburban down-she also left an open package of Oreos in a metal ice chest in the back. In the wee hours, we heard a commotion and went to a window-there was a big black bear in the back of the vehicle, crushing the ice chest like it was cardboard-it ate the Oreos, then proceeded to claw at the back seat and rip up the carpet in the back of the vehicle looking for more, vocalizing the whole time-then it bent the tailgate on one side before taking its leave of our campsite. I decided then I never wanted to be any closer to a bear in the wild than that-and the cub never left the tailgate down again-or even a crumb of food in there-the damage to the Suburban cost several $1000’s to repair...