I was in a pretty large residential-type building, nestled in the woods somewhere, that was like a mountain lodge; a modern log cabin.  I heard from some people that there were some bears outside, hanging out around the property, and so the tone was of naïve excitement — like they thought they could just casually observe the bears at close proximity while they did their foraging, but without getting the bears’ attention, so they were confident there would be no interaction or engagement with them.  I.e. they considered it a risk-free opportunity.  This idea aroused concern and disbelief within me, so I felt the need to investigate the situation, to see whether it was in fact a benign thing, or determine whether my suspicion of it being potentially risky was valid.

I was holding a notebook, and walked out through a door on the right side of the building, and walked toward the back by turning left.  At the same time, I heard one of the people describe the bears as black bears, which somewhat alleviated my concern, as I believed them to be less aggressive than brown bears and especially grizzlies.  I moved toward them, saw the people and some black bears, then also noticed some smaller black animals running around that didn’t seem to be accounted for in the conversation up to that point.  I thought they were dogs at first, but then realized they were wolves!  I again felt like the people outside were naive or ignorant in thinking this was not a potentially dangerous situation.

I turned around, went back into the house, and was looking for my buddy Jay.  It was a bit weird because when I went back inside and through a few rooms I didn’t see any people at all, which surprised me a bit because I had thought of perhaps some people being inside while others were outside– but apparently everyone was outside.  I went through the interior, then out again through a door at the back of the house, located centrally along the back wall.  I found Jay soon after going through the door, in that transition space just outside the door, and we turned around and went back inside again.

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