I have a co-worker named Sam, who is very nice. He and I have kinda hit it off, because we're both video boaters and don't have any particular desire to be drunk all the time (unlike many of the raft guides). There also is a bear in my neighborhood.I call it Sam's bear because he's the only one who has actually seen it (at least as far as I know), and it has shown a particular liking for his trash can as a potential source of food. The first time he encountered it, he was awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of something messing with his trash can -- probably, he thought, a raccoon. He grabbed a lighter and a stick and rushed out of his camper in his underwear to scare it off, only to have the breeze blow out the lighter as he opened the door. He did scare the thing off, but it was much bigger than he expected. A conversation the following day with Redneck (yes, we have a guide called Redneck; there's also one known as Squirrel) convinced Sam that what he had seen was, in fact, a black bear.
A couple of nights later, Sam and I were talking well after it got dark, and when he went back to his campsite, I heard him yelling something. I asked what was going on, and he shouted, "Sarah, I need a stick! There's a bear in my campsite!" He came back across the parking lot, picked up a wrist-thick fallen tree trunk about ten feet long, and charged back to his camp. I followed at a distance, not sure what was happening. When I got over there, the bear was gone and Sam was picking up his trash can, which the bear had dragged off toward the woods. He showed me a huge hole in the bag and said the bear hadn't unlatched the lid; it had just reached under it and tried to pull the bag out. Fortunately, that was a couple days ago. I haven't seen or heard about it since, but we all know it's going to come back. It's just a question of when and what it's going to go after. I'm not sure what I'm going to do to protect my food, but measures will have to be taken . . . Labels: river people, story, unexpected adventure |
Hey! I look forward to hearing more about this bear! (ok, and sam, too ;)
Glad that you're keeping up with the blog - I've bookmarked it on my laptop, so keep writing!
Smiles from many miles,
Juli