What would you do if you were out for a solo hike in the backcountry, stopped to fill your water bottle in a creek, and turned around to find yourself nose-to-nose with a bear? This is the story of such an encounter in the Trinity Alps Wilderness from one of our Backcountry Press authors and photographers, Ken DeCamp. Ken walks us through his ill-fated surprise meeting in a creek side willow thicket when out photographing wildflowers in August of 2020 along a little used trail. It was an encounter from which he bear-ly survived. Ken’s story shows us that the aftermath of such a fleeting moment may require digging more deeply into your pockets of courage, endurance, resourcefulness, and grit than you may have ever needed to dig before.
This is our first episode of The Backcountry Beat, a podcast from Backcountry Press about Nature, Adventure, and Stewardship. Streaming to you from a redwood forest in Humboldt County, California.
Ken DeCamp is co-author of Wildflowers of the Trinity Alps, which includes over 700 of his wildflower photographs.