A bear ate my shoe!

After a pretty long week, i took a full day off. The pilot, Dave, one of the coolest people here. Took me on this awesome adventure. He has been a pilot in Alaska for 16 years, sings and plays in a Blue Grass band, a mountain lion hunter, and one of the funniest people I know. He and his girlfriend live here in Alaska now and know this country like, i don't even know what. After dropping off the guide and the customer at a nearby river, we flew into this area known as Pirates Cove. This place was beautiful!! The water was turquoise from glacier runoff and the weather was fantastic. Instead of fishing, we decided to spend the day hiking. We packed our bags and strapped on our waders and climbed the tundra and rocks. Once we got through the mushy part, we took off our waders and boots and left them on a pretty sizable rock. We hiked about a mile upward, until we could see the Pacific Ocean on the other side. I hiked across a couple of pretty fresh bear dens and scaled a couple of waterfalls. Hardest workout i have ever had, but so awesome. Once we got to the top we sat and ate our packed lunches across from an enormous glacier. We took some unbelievable pictures, ate wild blueberries and then decided to truck-it back. All of the sudden.... Dave told me to quickly get behind this rock and start heading off towards the plane. I didn't question it.... i just started walking quickly, with out all my gear. I heard dave yell, "go away bear.....get out of here..." I turned around and saw the bear looking right at me, on the rock (with all my stuff), about 20 feet away at this point. Dave was off to the side trying to distract the bear and moving big rocks around to scare it off. He calmly told me, not to run and keep going. I turned back around and saw the bear following me and Dave. Apparently this bear was younger, still about 6.5 feet tall, but not a mean one, just curious. We got safely to the plane and the bear followed us straight into the water. Without my waders and shoes, i was soaking wet and very cold. Luckily, once the bear saw the plane he took off down the beach. After we knew he was clear of the bear, Dave went back to find my stuff, but one of my shoes was gone. It was a little scary, but honestly..... it was also exciting. I had the best time. Sorry i didn't get a picture of it, didn't seem like a good moment! That's it. Enjoy the pics from today.