Terrifying moment runner comes face-to-face with a mother bear and her cubs on California hiking trail

This is the chilling moment a runner came face to face with a mother brown bear and her two cubs on a hiking trail in Sierra Madre, California.

The runner, Laura Gold, captured on her phone trying to escape a terrifying confrontation with the adult bear after it abruptly turned and charged at her.

Despite Gold’s attempts to scare them away by shouting loudly and taking a step back, the trio doggedly approached her. video shows.

In the footage, Gold, clearly scared, takes a deep breath as he continues to roar backwards. You can hear her reassuring herself and saying, “Okay, okay, we got this.”

“While trail running alone, I was about six inches away from hitting mama bear after turning into a tight blind corner,” Gold wrote on her social media.

Laura Gold’s attempts to scare them away by roaring and backing away, the trio continuously following her on the path

Gold was stopped when she turned the corner and saw the bear in her running path

‘To avoid hitting her, I stopped as quickly as I could and almost slid down the mountain. “I had already seen the cubs, so I knew I wasn’t safe,” she wrote.

She also used a whistle and stepped back to a point in the video where the bears are no longer visible.

However, the trio lingered on the trail for a while until the runner came across a male hiker and sought help.

She said the trail split behind the bears and both trails went down the mountain.

“There… there are bears,” you hear them say in a trembling voice. The hiker replied, “I saw them.”

Gold wrote on her social media: “I used every trick in the book (except bear spray) and nothing worked. Mama bear kept walking toward me until another hiker came from behind me and helped shoo them away.

Together with the post hiker they encountered, they guided the bears to follow one path, while they themselves descended the mountain via the other.

In the footage, the runner, clearly scared, takes a deep breath as he continues to roar backwards

The runner said the trail split behind the bears and both trails headed down the mountain

The video has received an overwhelming response from social media users, with many expressing shock at the heartbreaking moment.

Many users also criticized Gold for mishandling the situation, pointing out that she continued to follow the bears for a short distance after spotting them, as seen in another video.

Gold can be heard saying in the video, “That damn king scared me. Oh dear.’ But she approached them with a camera even after the mother bear turned away.

One user wrote: ‘I’m no bear expert, but I haven’t read anywhere where running towards them, especially a mother with cubs, has saved anyone’s life.’

“As soon as you see cubs, you better distance yourself from that mother,” said another.

The second video, which Gold later posted, shows the male hiker approaching the bears and coming to a stop just a few feet away.

“So you’re just going to them?” You hear Gold hesitantly ask the man. The pair came closer and closer to the bears.

One person wrote in a comment: ‘Don’t follow a bear with her cubs, luckily she didn’t take it as a sign of aggression. It would have been one hell of a live leak video though.”

Another user said, “You’re all so lucky mama bear didn’t destroy you. glad everything is going well and the bears too’