Photo: Wikepedia Francois Arsenault had a close encounter with a grizzly bear near the Foothills Tuesday evening.

Francois Arsenault got more than he expected when he went for a hike Tuesday evening.

The nature videographer was taking a stroll near his home in the Foothills area of Silver Star Mountain when he came across a mother grizzly bear and her cub.

“She is a good sized sow with a cub. I am 100 per cent positive it is a grizzly. This was a big bear. The grass up there is about four feet high and she is a lot taller than the grass,” he said, adding the bear was not aggressive or threatening in any way.

“I think she was just as scared of me as I was of her. She was not aggressive. She was just living her life up there. ”

Arsenault said the same bear had been spotted a couple weeks ago and conservation officers told him they suspect the bear has a den in the area and people should be cautious while hiking.

Arsenault posted about his encounter to social media not to scare people, but to make them aware the bear and cub were in the area.

“These are not bears to be trifled with. A black bear is one thing, a grizzly something altogether different,” he said.