Mom won't be crazy about this one...

The bears behind me are the sow with four cubs and a sow with one cub. These two sows get along amazingly well. Someone told me once that sometimes sows "babysit" for one another and I think these sows have that arrangement. They are very familiar with us, whizzing by all the time on our ATV's and seem comfortable with our presence. You can probably tell how relaxed they were--in this picture none are even looking at me and they continued to play and frolic when we stopped. Still, in almost every picture taken of me, I am looking over my shoulder. We parked the ATV's allowing for a quick getaway and I am holding bear spray, but if the bears had seem agitated at all we wouldn't have stayed. Altogether there were nine bears hanging out in the this area (near the dump, naturally) and we did not stay long.