Two Crazy Chicks Productions, in association with WorldWild PhotoGraphics and What Am I Going to Tell Your Mother? Productions, is proud to present episode 1 of The Adventures of Yumiko and Eden in Glacier National Park…
“Swiftcurrent Pass is posted for bears. Actually, grizzlies have been seen recently on all of the area’s trails,” the ranger reports. “Two are completely closed due to bear activity.”
“I’ll understand if you’d rather not hike,” Eden says to Yumiko.
Yumiko deliberates for a long moment. “No. It’s okay. We’ll just have to do as the Park Service recommends and be sure to make a lot of noise.”
Our intrepid heroines, on high alert as they set out, can’t help but recall the hike they took not far from here 15 years ago.
On that fine summer’s day, as they were nearing the end of their 9-mile trek on the spectacular Iceberg Lake Trail, a loud roar made their feet and hearts come to a complete standstill.
“There’s something big in the bushes.”
“No shit,” Eden muttered as a huge grizzly sow and her two cubs came crashing onto the trail. “Don’t run, Miko!”
The mama bear stared long and hard at the two humans – as if they were lunch on legs – before abruptly turning and leading her cubs down the mountainside.
At the time, our dynamic duo sighed with relief and high-tailed it the remaining half-mile to the parking lot.
It was their first close encounter with Ursus arctos horribilis.
They have not gone far on the Swiftcurrent Pass Trail when Yumiko, walking a few paces behind Eden, lets out a shriek.
Bear! Eden’s adrenaline spikes. She spins around, looking for the grizzly.
But Yumiko is staring at the ground. At a snake.
“A snake?” Eden hisses as it slithers off. “Seriously? A snake? For heaven’s sake, Miko, you gave me a coronary!”
“It startled me.”
When their breathing returns to some semblance of normal, Yumiko and Eden resume their hike to Redrock Falls, clapping their hands and calling out “Hey, bear!” But that gets boring after a while, so Eden begins singing.
“One hundred bottles of beer on the wall. One hundred bottles of beer. If one of the bottles should happen to faaaalllll... ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall!”
Though Yumiko (not having grown up in the U.S.) is unfamiliar with the song’s challenging and complicated lyrics, it does not take her long to master them.
Our fearless females DO see bears – a mother and her two cubs – but the grizzly family is high on the mountainside across Fishercap Lake.
“Well,” Eden says with some satisfaction as they step off the trail, “we made it back safely. Probably because my singing is... unbearable!”
© Eden Feuer
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