A female hiker heading up the Mount Wilson Hiking Trail in the Sierra Madre, California had an encounter that would rattle just about anyone's nerves. However, she remained as cool as a cucumber and deserves some credit for her reaction.
Victoria Pham said she was on her way up the trail when she heard a bit of a commotion from others coming down. "I noticed these hikers were coming down, you know, kind of in a panic saying, 'Oh my God! There's an animal up there,'" Pham told KABC.
Even with the warning from the hikers exiting the trail, Pham pushed on until she found the animal they were referencing: a large black bear.
"I noticed this black bear coming down, and it was very calm and chill, just trotting along down the trail, and I noticed there were hikers above as well." She continued, "So the bear was between me and the hikers."
Watch the video to see what happened.
Pham told KABC that she thought to herself, "Well, I can't outrun the bear, and I can't really go either way off the trail, so I'm just going to let this bear pass."
She took out her phone, holding it at chest height as the bear passed by. Pham said, "He looked at me, and I looked at him, and I was like, 'Cool man!'"
After the bear passed, Pham followed it down and scarred him off the trail by making some noise.
Pham was able to stay calm, but truth be told, she could have made a slightly wiser decision to skip the trail hike that day. She also could have reacted the way we're advised to react with black bears. You're supposed to get out of its vicinity, slowly without turning your back, and to speak to it in a calm and firm tone. She did neither, but Pham also exhibited extreme calm and made no aggressive or startling actions towards the bear. She also already knew a thing or two about bear safety.
She attributes the success of the interaction to her time with Yosemite National Park and her Search & Rescue and bear training. The National Park Service tells hikers to remain calm and remember that most bears want to be left alone if they come across a bear. In her Instagram post, she wrote, "I used to work in Yosemite National Park where I've gone through bear training and worked in Search & Rescue, so I'm quite familiar with bear behavior and body language. I do recognize that it is a BEAR and can do serious damage."
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Pham told KABC that she hikes the trail multiple times throughout the week and had never seen a bear on it before this encounter. She also points out that bears and other wildlife need to stay wild.
"You are not supposed to let the bears get comfortable with human interaction," she said in the report. "So I was like, alright, I'll let you pass, and then I'll scare you away so that you don't get the idea that it's okay to be this close to humans."
