'I heard it huffing and puffing': Black bear spotted in Gilpin

Waylon Walker was riding his ATV on his family’s property — Habes Nursery — in Gilpin on Thursday night when he had quite a scare.

He heard an animal grunting nearby.

It was about 10:30 p.m.

Walker usually carries a flashlight with him at night, but he left it at his house on the charger.

“I shut off the four-wheeler, and something was breaking a bunch of big sticks and it was coming towards me,” Walker said Friday.

As it got closer, Walker could hear it breathing. It was a black bear.

“I heard it huffing and puffing, and I took off and headed back toward the house. They’re fast,” he said.

Walker, 36, Leechburg has mounted cameras around the property. He captured pictures of the bear from a variety of angles.

“Its paws are as big as my head,” he said. “It’s so huge.”

But it also is frightfully skinny. The bear Walker captured on camera clearly is desperate for food. He said the bear was eating from a raspberry bush that wasn’t ripe.

“He’s so skinny that he’ll do anything to eat,” Walker said. “When bears get that hungry, they’ll go after game.”

Walker said he and his mother, Janie Walker, and his stepfather, John Sterosky, have had problems with the bears going through their garbage. Sterosky even built a thick wooden container for the garbage. A bear later ripped it apart.

There have been a number of black bear sightings in the Pittsburgh area this spring. Some have been in the city of Pittsburgh.

Police have warned anyone who comes across a bear to leave it alone, refrain from feeding it and call 911.