Trapped by a Bear

I want to thank all the ladies who came out to Bunco Game Night!  We had a great time of fellowship, fun and fundraising.  Praising God for $280 raised towards the trip.  This brings my total amount raised up to $11,349.  I am $4,905 away from my goal of being fully funded by September 5, 2014.  I am believing God will meet this need!

Tonight, it was brought to my attention that some of the women had not heard the story of my bear encounter when I was hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2009, as a missionary.  This story is beloved by so many people who like to re-tell it.  So if you like it, please feel free to share it at will. 🙂  You can read my original blog entry about this, from 2009 when I was on the trail, here:

 http://appalachiantrailministry.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html 

Here goes:

I was hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT) one day when I made it to a shelter (3 sided structure).  I was in Virginia and had just crossed into Shenandoah National Park, 2 miles before the shelter.  I was hiking the trail solo but had never spent a night alone, as other hikers would be at the shelters at the end of the day.  When I got to the shelter, it was 5 pm.  There were 4 people there, 3 guys who were hiking together and they were eating dinner and then going on to the next shelter, 13 miles away, hoping to get a blueberry milk shake in the middle at a road crossing.  The other guy was checking his maps, he was a section hiker, on the trail for a month and his girl friend was meeting him at the park entrance, to hike with him for the weekend.  By 5:30, all 4 of the guys had left.  I was starting to settle in; I’d refilled my water bottles in the stream, visited the brand new outhouse, which I had taken pictures of because it was new and luxurious, it had two sides and a pipe in the middle for ventilation.  When you are backpacking, it doesn’t take much to impress you after a few months 😉

 This is the shelter

 Here’s where I filled up my water bottles

  This is the infamous outhouse!

As I was sitting at the picnic table, reading the trail log (composition book that you sign into and can leave messages for other hikers) I heard some rustling and a bear jumped over a reforestation fence behind the shelter.  This was the first bear that I had encountered on the trail or ever.  He was about 25 feet in front of me, sniffing around the “Kissing Trees.”  At first, I thought, well if he stays over there, then we are fine.  Then he looked at me and I decided to follow all the advice the professionals give you, about what to do when you encounter a bear.  I stood up, and puffed myself up, flailed my arms and yelled at the bear.  The bear looked at me as if to say “what’s your point?”  I had my full pack, with my food bag on the picnic table in front of me.  As the bear came closer, I picked up my pack and ran for the outhouse.  The bear followed behind me. 

 The is the fence the bear jumped over

Once I was in the outhouse, I could only “see” outside through a nail prick at the top of the door.  I was able to sit on the seat and could use my headlamp sparingly, as it seemed to agitate the bear.  There were 2 large colorful spiders that were in the corners next to the seat, one on each side.  I try not to kill insects unless I feel an immediate danger from them, as I feel God created them for a purpose, even if I have a hard time understanding that at times, ie: mosquitoes.  I kept turning my light on to check on them.  If they moved, they died.  Thankfully, they stayed put.   

I tried to get cell phone reception to call 911, so they could call the Ranger’s Station to have someone come up, but I could not get a signal.  I tried to send a group text message asking people to pray but that would not send either.  

I tried to scare the bear off by making loud noises.  When I hit my fists on the walls of the outhouse, it was really loud because of the metal ventilation pipe between the two stalls.  I would bang and yell for 5 mins, until I could hear the bear getting agitated.  I tried reading my Bible out loud to the bear and it would get very aggressive, snorting and backing away and then running towards the outhouse.  

Because it was a newly constructed building, before they laid the concrete slab, they must have put down stones.  There was a border of stones around the concrete.  I could hear the bear running and then it would slide on the stones and stop just before hitting the door.  I did not see an Angel but I think the Lord had one stationed outside that door, to let the bear know it could only come that far.  Bears are very strong animals and the outhouse that I was in, though new, the walls were just plywood.  This bear could have easily ripped the outhouse to shreds and not have been tired out doing it.

I could hear other animals like birds, deer and possibly rodents moving around outside.  I kept telling the bear to go chase them but it did not move.  By 3 am, I was starting to feel like Jonah, in the belly of the big fish.  I was praying and asking the Lord what He was trying to teach me through this.  By 5, the bear was still not giving up or in and continued to charge the outhouse at least every 30 minutes.  I started to ask the Lord if this was the end for me and told Him if it was, to please hurry it along.

From the little I had read of the shelter journal before the bear came, it seemed like many people were stopping for breaks and/or camping at this shelter.  I was constantly asking the Lord to bring someone to help me chase off the bear.  About noon, the next day I heard someone coming.  I could hear them singing, so I started yelling.  Once they heard me and I’d relayed about how the bear had me trapped in the outhouse, we agreed to both run at the bear at the same time, with our trekking poles (similar to ski poles,) to scare the bear off.  I came running out of the outhouse and the other person came from the right side.  At this surprise attack, the bear ran off.  I thanked my rescuer profusely and told him what had happened with the bear.  I was a bit shaken after spending 18 hours in the outhouse!

 These two trees are what attract so many people to stop by this shelter.  These are the “Kissing Trees”

As a general rule, hikers that are thru hiking a trail do not usually hike miles they have already covered.  But I knew I needed to go back to the visitor’s center and report this bear.  Once I did, the Ranger agreed to have someone spend two weeks at the shelter in case the bear came back.  He said they would relocate it to another section of the park where less people are.

Have you ever been trapped by something in your life?  Have you gained freedom from that thing that wants to hold you back?  Jesus wants us to have 100% freedom, freedom that can only come through a relationship with Him.  Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  Ask Jesus today, how He can help you break your cycle of entrapment.  

Jesus is the answer, Romans 8:1-4 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you^[a] free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,^[b] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.^[c] And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.