Bear encounter

I've been camping hundreds of times and I have very rarely seen a bear. Most of my camping experience comes in the Adirondacks, a place known for a large Black Bear population. Yet, in all my time there I never saw a bear. I'd seen signs of them, heard them, had them raid food, but never saw one.

In the three years I lived in the Catskills the only time I saw a bear was when he was rummaging through a dumpster outside a local dive bar in Olive Bridge. That was a fun night.

When backpacking in the Tetons I did see a Black Bear off the trail eating berries. we watched him for awhile and we all went about our business. Grizzlies are far more dangerous and they live in the Rockies so a Black Bear sighting isn't that significant.

This past weekend was my most exciting bear encounter ever, and my kids were a part of it.

I have been taking my kids on regular camping trips to get them comfortable in the outdoors and to create lasting memories. I'm always looking for nice car-camping spots outside of the regular realm of RV-dominated public campgrounds. It's hot in June so I needed to get somewhere at a high elevation. The White Mountains are a good choice but it is over a four-hour drive. I remembered a friend had told me about Mt. Grahm in the Pinaleno Mountains. Half the drive, but similar in terrain. Mt. Grahm is just south of Safford, Arizona where I hear it's hard to find a job and build a nestegg unless you don't mind working for hot dog stands or being a school crossing guard.

We headed up the long, twisty road untill we were at 9,000 feet, where there is a public campground every five miles or so. Only one was a strictly tent-spot, with no RV's allowed. I went for that one. Unfortunately all the tent spots are quite aways from the parking area. We use the truck-tent so I guess we are closer to an RV than a real tent. It's a tough conundrum.

We left that area and as I was driving out a young ranger-type driving an official-looking vehicle was coming in. We chatted, I told him what I was looking for, he said there was a large group-site that was unoccupied for the evening. Park the truck right next to site, picnic tables, seclusion. Perfect. And free. We rolled in, parked the car, took some pictures and started getting food stuff out.

Very open spot, which was nice. I love the smell of a pine forest, and we had some huge trees here. We set up the truck-tent which only takes ten minutes, and we were inside with the windows zipped down when Matilda said "Daddy - a bear." "Yeah Yeah," I said. My kids are often claiming to see bears. She repeated herself and I looked up.

A full-grown Black Bear was about 200 feet away in the trees staring down at our campsite. Whoa. I told the kids to stay in the tent and I grabbed my camera and climbed out. I shut the truck up and started loading the cooler into the big, metal "bear box" the campground supplied. I never took my eyes off the bear. He started lumbering toward us, but I stood my ground and he moved to the left, into a little ravine.

I finished putting all the food stuff into the box just as he came out of the ravine and started walking towards us again. Now I was able to take some pictures.

I found that I didn't much care for the bear hanging around the site as cool as he may be. I needed to scare him away with some loud noises. And since I didn't feel like banging pots and pans I reached in the open window of the truck and started beeping my horn. That did the trick as the bear turned direction and started heading back uphill, away from our little valley.

After he was safely gone we went about our business cooking dinner and such. I explained to the kids that bears weren't interested in humans, just the food they leave behind. We established ground rules about food around the campsite and in the truck and we agreed to put everything in the boxes: toothpaste, dishes, messy clothes, everything. We also came up with a plan if he came back. The kids stuck very close to me the entire time.

A few hours later he did come back. He kept his distance this time, and the light was low so I didn't get any good pictures. He watched us, then took a circuitous route around our area before once again disappearing into the woods.

I didn't sleep well that night, but not because I was nervous about the bear. Sometimes when you're camping you sleep like a log all night. And then sometimes you wake up a lot, wonder about the time, can't believe the sun isn't up yet, and try to fall back asleep. This was one of those times. The night was quiet and I never heard any rustling around or anything.

Morning came and Griffin looked out the window. "Bear's back" he said. I looked up and sure enough, the bear was once again scoping out our site. He was on the opposite side this time, closer to the road, and he still kept his distance. We watched him, he watched us. Then apparently he became bored and lumbered back into the woods.

We had a relaxing pancake breakfast and then packed up the car to move to another site. We weren't worried about the bear, but the group site was supposedly reserved for the next night, and we (Me) wanted to continue. We headed down the dirt road another 8 miles or so to a campground at a mountain lake. Just perfect. Those pictures will follow in the next post.

It's funny. I figured even if nothing else significant happened for the entire trip, at least we would have one hell of a story.