Tuesday, June 8, 2010

THE BEARS I HAVE MET

I personally have met two bears in my lifetime, I mean the four legged kind, with fur and claws. I am a country boy, have spent a lot of my life in the country, don't really like the city. The first bear I saw was when I was a child, here goes. About 1959 my parents decided to go camping in northern California, Oregon and Washington. We had a 1957 ford station wagon, now picture this, the station wagon filled up with people and camping equipment, on the top was a carrier with more stuff covered with a canvas tarp and we are on our way. My dads brother, my uncle, was only a few years older than I was and he came along also. After several days and nights camping we ended up at crater lake. Our tent, some of you may remember these tents, big, green and canvas, we would stake it out, then there was a wooden pole that had four metal rods at the top, with one going in each corner. this was a pretty large tent, big enough to sleep six people and you could stand up in it. Up to this time my uncle got to sleep by the tent door each night, my being not that much younger than him thought that was not fair, so I complained until I was afforded that prized spot our first night at crater lake. We had taken out dog with us on this trip, cookie was tied to one of the front tent stakes at night, I guess so she would not wander off. Well the time came to go to bed and I moved into that prized spot in front of the tent door, I even unzipped it a little so I could pet cookie and have the fresh air, I slept great until about daylight when cookie started barking, (she never barked) and tried to come into the tent, I being the one in charge of the tent door, opened it up and looked out to see what was going on, meanwhile cookie was going crazy and in my face trying to get in the tent, to my surprise I spotted the cause of all the trouble, a black bear, at the time it was the biggest bear I had every seen, actually the only I had ever seen out of the local zoo. He looked like he was going to come into the tent, being he was only about 5 feet from the tent door that I was supposed to be guarding and coming toward me. Me, sleeping bag and the dog made a leap to the back of the tent and landed on my parents, we hid in the corner while everyone else scared the bear away. By the way I eagerly gave up that prized spot in front of the door for the rest of the trip.
Now you would think that all the time I have spent in the woods I would have had more experience with bears, not. Yesterday about 8:30 pm, just getting dark, I was doing some business on the computer, in front of the television. You have to picture this, we live the side of the mountain, out the front windows you see from the middle to the tops of trees, out the back windows you see the ground and the base of the trees, because the mountain goes up in the back and down in the front. Well I am facing the back, I see movement, thought it was deer, they come around in the evening. All the sudden I realized that this is no deer, this was a very large, and I mean large brown bear, with the Arcadia door wide open and this bear about 25 feet from the door and coming toward it guess what I did? Well I didn't run and hide like last time. My first thought was my wife is never going to believe this I need a picture, yup a picture. I crossed in front of the open door went to the den and found the camera, turned it on so all I had was to take the picture. By this time he noticed me stood up growled a little, still moving toward the door. Then he fell down on all four feet as I snapped the picture. The flash on the camera frightened him off and as he is starting to go away I even tried to take another picture, didn't really come out that good because it was too dark, but here it is anyway. The picture was good enough to show my wife though. Oh yeah I closed the door also. Oh how we grow over the years, at first we run then as we get older I guess we think we need proof. Who knows, as I set here this morning working the door is closed and my eyes open.

4 comments:

  1. No, Uncle John, this is how you KNOW you're a blogger...you might be scared witless, but you better grab that camera, for some proof. LOL

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  2. Oh my gosh, now I wouldn't be going out much in dark anymore, or leaving any food and scraps around. I remember the Crater Lake inncident too. Makes us laugh now anyhoo....

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  3. Wow! I think I would've just drawn a stick figure illustration rather than run out with the camera... but then again... I haven't had an opportunity to see a bear up close before.
    Mimi told me about your blog. I like what I've read so far!

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  4. My mom and dad were hiking a couple years back and they sat down on a log by the water and weren't paying attention and all the sudden my mom looks up and grabs my dad's arm and says I'M SCARED! Across the stream there was a bear, it heard my mom say that and it looked up at them and it walked away. Close call !!! here is my blog you can come check it out ! http://sailingwithbarefeet.blogspot.com/

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