Bear!

...but I wasn't lucky enough to see it! Beautiful Gatineau, you screwed me again!

I was blissfully biking downhill when a man walking toward me said something in French. Screeeeech! Wheels stopped - pardon moi?

He said it again, and then to make sure I understood, he repeated in English: "I just saw a bear." Peering through some leafy brush along the path and above a highway, he added that a black bear had crossed the highway and meandered on to the bike path where he had been. Whoa! Sounded like a juicy story but no more details were released before he started walking quickly again, advising me to be careful, up the hill from where I'd come. I started biking again, scanning the brush at first, until trepidation moved me off the path and on to the street. It was busy enough. I figured there were way too many cars and cyclists in motion to encourage a bear.

I have only seen the ass end of a bear as it ran from me in the Gats. I'm probably due to see one face to face but I would want assurances that scratching, mauling or anything in the eating/affection range would not take place. I guess that means at a zoo.

Maybe I'll take the bus tomorrow.