Locking eyes with a 400-pound brown bear can send shivers down your spine, but I felt calm, euphoric even, as Roxie and her fuzzy two-year-old cub, Pebbles, approached. “She’s using us as a shield,” expedition leader Mike Hillman whispered. “Sit down, and no sudden movements.”
Hillman, a seasoned expedition leader with Natural Habitat Adventures’ safari getaway Alaska Bear Camp , was spot on. Roxie was a regular around this Chinitna Bay-front sliver of Lake Clark National Park, as was her male suitor, Pom. Hillman had binged several seasons of this bruin reality show already. Pom couldn’t register Roxie’s disinterest. So, she ditched him by crossing a gurgling stream and ambling up and over our viewing ridge, knowing full well our presence would keep Pom away. It worked. Pom moved on to his next conquest: a mother and cub who evaded him by scaling a tree.
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