“So do you want to hike further?” Kendra asked Grayson, meaning on the trail that they had been on.
“No,” the one man said.
Kendra smiled at Grayson. He smiled back.
Before they reached the taped-off area, they saw a couple with teenage kids climbing under the tape.
They immediately froze when they saw the park ranger.
“Is the trail open now?” the man asked, probably the dad, and sounding like he wanted to get himself and his family out of trouble.
“Is the tape in place, stating the trail is closed because of the wildlife danger?” Patrick asked.
“Well, yeah, but look at all of you,” the man said, motioning to the others.
“They were fined two hundred and fifty dollars apiece for going on the taped-off trail,” Patrick said.
The dad and his family quickly went under the tape.
“We don’t just set up rules to make things inconvenient for you,” Patrick said. “There was a real danger ahead, and we aim to stop that from happening.”
“Yeah,” the one guy behind them said. “A mother bear was protecting her cubs, and we thought she was going to kill the bear experts.”
Good, finally, he was getting the point of the matter.
The family looked a little ashen.
“Why don’t we go back and play in the water some more?” the mom said.
The teens agreed, and the whole family headed back to the pond.
Patrick posted another sign on the trail, warning of grizzlies fighting each other.
“Why did you post that?” the one man asked. “We didn’t see any grizzly bears fighting each other.”
“If I post that a protective mother is watching over her cubs, what do you think might happen?” Patrick asked.
The two men looked at each other.
“Well?” Patrick prompted.
“They would want to take pictures of them,” the one man begrudgingly offered.
“Did you take pictures of them?” Kendra asked.
“Well, yeah, of course. Anyone would have.”
“Not us. And we didn’t take any of the raging bear either,” Grayson said. “You know why?”
“Because you’re bear experts,” the one man said.
Then they made their way past the tape and back to the lodging.
“So, like I asked you, do you want to hike some more?” Kendra asked Grayson.
“I sure do. We’re bear experts, after all.”
She laughed. “What if we run into a cougar?”
