This climb was slow and patient. We were headed in a different direction, an unrecorded terrain. And we don’t know the bears well, nor do they know us.

Our patience paid off. We came across a bear family about 100 meters away. We had to stop and not intrude on their space. They were busy looking for food, and we were observing them quietly. They weren’t startled by us. No one wanted to get too close. So it was a peaceful encounter. And, yes, we did get to see them walking (bipedal) in line.

We spend our nights indoors, sleeping inside the sealed greenhouse yurts. Mac is back from the infirmary. He is in good spirits. In his yurt are Eugene Douglass, Slate, and Slate’s dog, Jack. Whenever Jack growls, we reach for our phones, and then try to calm him down. This way, we sleep securely albeit intermittently.