“The first day of Spring :D”, one of the chair lift operators had written this on a whiteboard. We could tell Spring had arrived, there were a few dead giveaways: we no longer required several layers of clothing, brown muddy patches started appearing in the snow, and of course, the classic indicator of spring, groggy and hungry black bears roamed the streets. We encountered one of these giant black bears as we walked back from a hard day on the slopes, groceries in hand. We both stop dead in our tracks, hearts beating in our throats. Gavin’s first instinct was to reach for his phone to capture this momentous occasion, “This will make one hell of a one-second video”. 

We follow it briefly, keeping a reasonable distance apart, Gavin putting on his best Attenborough impression. The bear eventually disappears into someone’s front Garden, out of sight. We notice this is a house we need to walk past to get home. I give Gavin the lowdown on bear interactions based on my extensive knowledge of YouTube videos and a sign I had recently read in the local park. “You need to politely tell them to fuck off while back off very slowly yourself. Shooing them away can also have the desired effect”. It then dawns on me that we have two shopping bags full of goodies, this brings the fear – the sign didn’t mention anything about bear confrontations while carrying heaps of tasty scran! 

We walk forward cautiously seeing it’s big black fur moving amongst the cars. Another passerby approaches the house. I start pointing and quietly shouting, “Bear! Bear!” Gavin laughs, shaking his head and saying, “Some warning! I could barely hear that he’ll never have heard that!” I can only hope my strange pointing signalled there was a bear because I am not raising any more attention to myself. As we move closer to the house, we could no longer see it. It must’ve run off, disappearing around the back and into the wooded area nearby. 

We pass the house gingerly, laughing by the time we get to a safe distance. My guard does not let up until I get back to the house, I casually check over my shoulder in the direction of the last known sighting. The feeling I got when I watched the movie Signs perfectly describes my encounter with this bear. The movie is about an Alien invasion, but you don’t see any Aliens and are therefore unsure if they exist or whether it's an elaborate prank. The film builds up tension gradually through crop circles, the media and dialogue with some stressed out locals before it jumps you with an alien sighting about two-thirds of the way through, immediately leading you to shit your pants unexpectedly. That is kind of how Canada is with bears, well, when going from winter to the first day of spring at least.