Video: Bear charges at hiker on Mount Wilson trail

Video captured the shocking moment a bear charged at a hiker while on a trail on Mount Wilson in the Angeles National Forest.

The video shows the bear and hiker face-to-face from a bit of a distance, then the hiker walks toward the bear and makes some noise with bells in an attempt to get the animal to flee. Instead, the ruckus seemed to agitate the bear and it charged at the hiker instead.

Eric Chiu, who recorded the video, said he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“I was thinking this guy is crazy and I hope nothing happens to him,” Chiu said. “I’m not sure what was going through his mind to be honest, because the last thing you would think about is somebody would actually walk toward a bear. And at that point, I was a little bit concerned for his safety.”

Chiu said he stopped recording once he saw the bear get aggressive. After it charged, the hiker began to walk backwards away from the animal, and Chiu and his friends did the same.

They eventually hiked up the mountain and hid behind some bushes to let the bear pass. They made it safely down the mountain without any more encounters.