“Yeah, but if she tore into them, she wouldn’t be found at fault. Everyone would know she was protecting her cubs, and they got between her and them.”
“Exactly.”
Then the sow headed into the forest with her cubs.
They breathed a collective sigh.
“What do you want us to do?” the one man called out.
“Come this way, and you need to leave the area,” Patrick said. “Like the signs warned.”
“Don’t run,” Kendra warned, just in case they had more trouble.
The men were moving quickly but not running. But they looked like they wanted to run.
She didn’t blame them. That was a normal human response.
They waited for them to join them so they would be safer as a group. But Patrick immediately wanted to see their ID.
“What for?” the one man asked.
“For violating an order. For putting the bears and us in danger. For making us have to stop what we were doing to save you.”
“You didn’t need to do anything,” the other man said, arrogant, not getting the whole picture because he had made it out alive.
“Have you ever seen someone torn up by a bear?” Patrick brought out his phone and pulled up a video someone had taken of his friend being torn apart by a grizzly before he began moving away from the scene and went to get help. “That was a sow, protecting her cubs, just like in this situation. And his friend didn’t live. Where’s your bear spray?”
“Uh, in my backpack.”
“Good place for it. By the time you got it out, you would have been dead.”
“What about them?” the one guy asked, motioning to Grayson and Kendra.
“What about them?” Patrick asked.
“They’re on the trail too,” the guy said.
“Because I told them to go to your aid. They’re bear experts. You’re just lucky they came to help you, or you would have been facing the sow by yourselves. You probably don’t know enough about the wildlife to protect yourselves in a situation like this. In any event, I’m fining both of you for harassing wildlife and ignoring posted signs for a trail closure, putting yourself and others at risk.”
“Nah, you can’t do that,” the one man said.
The ranger took down their information and wrote them both up. He recorded it and then handed them the tickets.
The men read the fines, and one swore, and the other’s face turned beet red. “Two-hundred and fifty dollars!”
Kendra tried not to smile. Patrick was within his rights to issue the fines, but she suspected they would try to avoid paying them by appealing the decision.
But then Patrick showed the photos he had taken of the closed trail marker, and the men and their proximity to the sow and her cubs. “I will also get the trail cam footage that showed you went under the taped off trail.”
It still didn’t mean that the judge would fine them that much, but since one of the judges was a bear shifter, if he saw the case, he would.
“Sometimes it doesn’t pay to violate rules,” Patrick said. “But remember, the two of you got off easy. If the bear had attacked you, it would have been a much different story. And the cost? Much greater, if you had even made it out alive.”
Then Patrick turned and headed out with Grayson and Kendra. “Thanks for coming to their aid even if they’re not grateful for it.”
“Story of our life.” Kendra noticed the men were sticking close behind them, even though they were mad about the fine.
They didn’t want to put themselves in more danger. Again.
