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| | | Murphy BM & Bear Encounter, AZ | | | |
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Murphy BM & Bear Encounter, AZ
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| Hiking | 6.39 Miles |
1,945 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.39 Miles | 3 Hrs 9 Mns | | 2.03 mph |
| 1,945 ft AEG | | 25 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | Another action-packed, yet incomplete hike...
With so many of the areas still closed and the oppressively muggy weather in attendance at home, we figured we'd try another on-the-road-early and complete the hike before the thunderstorms set in kind of hike.
Two hours and three minutes from home and we were on the trail shortly after 8 am... Ok, so we weren't as early as we planned, we did beat the thunderstorms. The goal wasn't really too specific, just reach the ridge to Murphy Benchmark, continue SE to Peak 7662, south until connecting with Abbey's Way Trail and back out to FR 487.
Tracey never liked the drive along the cliff just before the falls, so we began the hike from the Falls Day-Use site, traveling Forest Road 487 on foot along the cliffs.
Although the temperature was only mid-60's, we hadn't gone a half-mile before the high humidity reared its ugly head. And for me, by time we turned off FR 487 at about a mile into the hike, I was already soaked through-and-through. Already my skull cap was past its capacity to hold sweat and it was just pouring into my eyes. Yup, I can already tell this is gonna be a real fun hike. 
While on FR 487, Tracey said something about wanting to see a black bear as she glanced across the canyon of Workman Creek... like it would be something to see one 'over there' but not close up.
Oh no, be careful what you wish for... 
And now, an hour into the hike Tracey got her wish... a black bear sighting! Only it WASN'T "across the canyon" but within 200 feet of us, and yup, you guessed it, it was right on our planned route.
Tracey was immediately apprehensive... 
Me? My first thought was Cool! Our last bear encounter was on Mount Graham some 5 years ago, but it was so focused on rooting for grubs it was never aware of us. But this bear was not actively involved in feeding and was aware of us almost immediately.
Ok, I have to get a few photos before giving it a wide berth. But the first few photos were worthless due to the camera focusing on trees between us so I figured I'd start filming and see what happens.
As it turned and slowly moved toward us, on the video Tracey can be heard saying Shouldn't we make some noise? I figured probably so, but I wanted to give it a moment to see if it loses interest in us.
It did not lose interest! As soon as it was clear the bear was continuing to approach us rather than turn away, I stopped filming. The moments later the bear began loping toward us so I blew my emergency whistle. When it kept coming I blew the whistle again but now it began charging at full speed! 
Ok, lesson learned in a hurry! ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
DO NOT blow a shrill whistle to scare off a bear!
Being completely in the open, we quickly moved (at this point somebody was running away, but it wasn't me) to a stand of trees just under 300 feet away. Then I stopped to turn and face the bear, by which time it was within 50 feet and still coming on strong! Uh oh! What now?
Quickly glancing around for ideas...
Nope, we're not going to try climbing any tree...
Use my hiking poles to fend it off? Nope #2...
Aha! I picked up a chunk of totally black charred tree trunk (probably 4" in diameter and 8" long from the fire a few years ago) and threw it toward but not directly at the bear and yelled 'Go!' at which time it wheeled around, ran the away to a 6" diameter tree and quickly climbed up about six feet.
WOW! Cool! Just like that I had treed the bear!
Ok, so now what Einstein?
I moved directly toward the bear while yelling a few more times when it dropped down from the tree and took off, loping away into a thicket of ferns, stopping a few times for a moment to glance back, then finally continuing on its way.
In retrospect, we believe it was a young bear which may not have had human contact and was simply curious. Although it approached at speed, it never appeared aggressive. And although Tracey had her heart beating like crazy, I don't believe mine mine bumped up at all. If any part of me was at a racing pace, it was my mind working on the overall scenario, to figure out what was happening...
Was it a mama bear protecting her cubs? No.
How big was it? Bigger than I first thought.
How old was it? Maybe a year on it's own.
It it being aggressive? Other than picking up speed after I blew the emergency whistle, no.
Was it just curious? It appears so.
How do we end this without injury? (for all three of us) Scare it off...
Add a million other thoughts between each line, all part of analyzing the situation as well as racking my brain for everything I'd heard about bear encounters.
In the end everything turned out fine, although Tracey and would have PTSD through the rest of the hike, seeing a bear anytime there was another charred stump.
YouTube Video: Black Bear Encounter
Ok, that drama over, it's time to move on to our goal of reaching Murphy Benchmark. Nothing special for the next 35 minutes, although the brush was getting thicker and thornier the closer we approached to Murphy BM. Initially we were following narrow elk/deer trails through the brush but it soon became a back-tracking challenge.
As we approached the worst of the brush, I get an electric stabbing pain from my right ankle... from WHAT?!!!
It's BELOW the top of the boot and my pants totally cover the boot. Whatever it was I had to stop it somehow, but try thrashing through locust thicker than I'd ever encountered before. I got stabbed from all directions before I found a spot open enough to get my boot off. As I pulled up my pant-leg, out flew something yellow... all I know is it left no stinger so it had to be some kind of wasp. Whatever, it was a nasty sting. 
(And yes about 30 hours later with a number of baking soda rubs into the sting area it is still a very sharp pain.)
Once I got my boot back on and looked at the wall-of-thorns around us, we both came to the instant realization, this ain't happenin! While I had my trusty titanium shears, this was NEVER a trail, so it could take hours to cut through the last quarter mile to the benchmark, let alone continuing past it.
Ok, we're outta here... back the way we came, or somewhat anyway. Of course Tracey was fine with taking a route farther AWAY from the bear encounter area.
One last near-high-drama... as we were dropping down a loose slope near FR 487, I looked down and saw what appeared to be an old honeycomb in a hole likely dug by a bear. It was gray so it looked dried up, and just when I stepped toward it and ready to tell Tracey, "Cool! An old honeycomb!" I saw a mass of bees on it... yet absolutely no buzzing sound at all. 
But I wasted NO time backing up and giving WIDE berth to the mass and hit-the-road in a hurry.
While hoofing it the last half-mile to the TH we met a guy in a truck who stopped to tell us he'd seen two bears just above the road over the last couple miles. Ha!
It was easy to top that with our close-encounter tale.
Back to the car... dark clouds rolling in, cracks of thunder... yup, a good thing we cut the hike short, although to be fair, we didn't hit any hard rain on the whole drive back, just a few sprinkles near Globe. Not even enough to wash the dust off the 4Runner from the dust storms a few days ago... when my weather station reported a number of 50 mph gusts. |
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