Then the little bear cub spotted her brother!  Momma got up and saw him and was visibly relieved.  He was more than a half mile away on the side of the next mountain anxiously pacing back and forth.  The separation was weighing on them all.  The little tike decided to take matters into his own hands and went back across the open valley and up the boulders on the back side of the mountain.  Joining up with his sister and Mother meant swinging low on the ridge that the big boar was eyeing them from.  We all watched with bated breath as the cub picked his way across the rocks just yards from the male bear who had been sleeping but now was up and calculating his chances.  Could he swatch that cub and send it over the cliff and retreat before Momma bear did the same to him?

At last it was over.  The cubs and Momma were reunited and the boar was beaten by Momma bear’s preparation, fierceness, and excellent defensive site selection.  The big boar laid down again just to make things hard but everyone knew the real danger had passed.  Momma could sleep while the cubs watched the old man and then they would move out after he did.  No way he was coming up that mountain.  It was almost midnight when this photo was taken, what a day.