Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Bears, beware of humans

Hi everyone! My mom gave me two photos today, mine are still at the shop, so I'll share these two. We went camping almost 10,000 feet up in the High sierras. I have been going there for over 20 years and have never seen a bear. Oh, I've always been aware that they exist up there, but have hiked and camped and never spotted one. Well let me tell you, this year was much different! Bears everywhere! It freaked us royally. It's a good thing we didn't tent camp this year, I would have gone home the first day if that was the case. The guy that owns the cabins and has owned them for almost 40 years, said with the drought and fire they had in the area the bears are starving. The first one we saw was by the lake while we were fishing, the first day. We noticed something moving across the lake, (not a huge lake) and thought maybe it was a large brown dog. But the way it moved we soon realized it was a bear. We couldn't believe it.I kept telling everyone that bears move fast and he was moving around the the shoreline towards us. Pretty soon he disappeared into the trees and I said "I'm outta here!" Quickly everyone followed me out towards our car. No sooner had we gotten in the car, there he was looking right at us. I was so glad we had taken the car to the lake instead of walking like we usually did. That bear we named Cinnamon because she was a beautiful cinnamon color. We saw her many times over the next week, sometimes walking across the patio by our sliding glass door. We would be sitting out there and watch her walk by while glancing at us. Other times we watched her walk up by the stream where my husband would clean his fish. The next bear we saw we named Cubby. This was a young brown bear with a white face. Cute as a button until he started running from behind a tree towards my husband as he was cleaning fish. I screamed at the top of my lungs, the bear looked at me and ran up the hill. He stood there for almost 30 min. looking at us and finally lay down and went to sleep. From that moment on, the bear watch started while he was cleaning the fish, hahaha. We never saw Cubby again after that day though. The third bear we saw was a huge black bear we named, umm Blackie. Original huh? This one came around 10pm each night. He would throw down our metal trash can, and pound on it until the top popped off. The feast would begin. We would wait for him to leave, clean it all up and about three hours later we would hear the trash can go down again. This time it would be Cinnamon. The next bear we called Scruffy. He just looked, well, scruffy. He was black and brown with some white on his chest. This was the lazy one. He would knock down the trash can and then lay down on his stomach and eat, hahaha. This is a picture of Scruffy. I have more pictures of the bears being developed. I should be getting them on Friday so I'll do another post. The last night before we left, we decided to feed the beers. We had been taking all our trash to the nearby campground and putting it in their big metal dumpster, instead of our metal trash can outside our cabin, mainly because we got tired of cleaning up the mess three times a night. But, the last night, we cleaned out the fridge and boxes and threw everything we weren't bring back home with us, in the metal can. Hey, they're hungry, let them have a feast. This is what went into the can: meatloaf, large bag of marshmallows, soup, bread, corn on the cob, lunch meat, chips, steak bones with a lot of steak still attached, crackers, and more, but can't think right now of the rest. We were hoping they would share, but haha, nope. Scruffy came by first, stayed for 20 minutes and ate everything. He did this while laying on his belly and only looking up when he heard a noise. He would keep going back to the marshmallow bag hoping to find more, hahahaha This next pic is of my Mom and husband by the lake before the bear came. See how happy and calm they look? I wish I could have taken an after pic, hehe. I stole my husbands hat because I forgot mine and he had to put a bandanna over his ears and use his other hat. I called him my little homeboy. For all you faithful friends that found me here, this is for you.

21 comments:

Kelly Ann said...

Wow I would have LOVED to phorograph them bears, that must have been an adventure to remember even if it was a bit scary. Glad your back and had fun.

LauriesAsylum said...

Wait til you see the other pics Kelly, they're in the daytime and I got up pretty close. Of course I used a throw away camera, so I don't know how well they'll come out.

lisalisabobisa said...

As many times as I've been in the mountains camping, I have never seen a bear. Glad you guys had fun. Awesome pictures:)

Dee Jay said...

I would have been peeing my pants if I were camping and they were wandering around. LOL I get nervous just knowing black bears are in the woods somewhere near me when I'm in a HOUSE!

I'm looking forward to the rest of the bear pics. : )

Cam a LOT said...

That is wonderful, Laurie !

Did you secretly want to pull a GRIZZLY ADAMS, and WRASSLE one of them bears ?

hahaha...

;-)

Reader Wil said...

Well that must have been scary! There are no bears here in Oz but crocs and snakes, though I haven't seen either of them! One of these days we will be going out on a boat to the reef and we hope to see whales then,

Anonymous said...

I like your layout. I also liked your post and read the whole thing. I saw your comment on Kelly's blog about efx2 and came to say, hi.

LauriesAsylum said...

I know Lisa, we've never seen them up there. Wait until you see the pics Paul got!

LauriesAsylum said...

Dang Deejay, you have black bears in the woods by you? They are suppose to be the aggressive bears. Believe me, I almost peed my pants when I saw the first bear!

LauriesAsylum said...

hahahahaha......NO! Funny Cam. I need my shaking finger guy, wah!

LauriesAsylum said...

Wil--I would love to see whales up close! I hope you bring your camera so you can share your experience!

LauriesAsylum said...

I'm glad you came by Abe, You have some great pics on your bird blog!

Patty said...

Glad to see you made it home safe and sound with all of your hands and feet. Ha!Ha!

LauriesAsylum said...

Patty--Me too, haha.

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heavensdevil said...

Great pics Laurie! It sounds like you had a good time even with your "new friends".

LauriesAsylum said...

Yay Wanda, you're here! I was wondering if you'd find us, I lost your email address a long time ago.

LMC said...

I would love to see bears that close! We had one walk past our truck when we went to Yellowstone a few years ago. I'm not so sure I would want them that close to where I was going to sleep though!

LauriesAsylum said...

LMC--It was a little freaky. I'm going to my sons this weekend, actually in just a few minutes, but when I get back, I'll post the rest of the pics!

Lady Visine said...

Oh my!! Now you have an idea of how I felt, back when we lived in Montana and the big black bear got into our mudroom! That darn bear was huge, but I didn't know who dragged our garbage all over the patio & yard, until the bear lumbered out of our greenhouse! It was pitch black out that night, so I was glad I had a flashlight. The bears you saw sounded like they were fairly acclimated to being around humans. Still, I would have screamed if a bear (baby or not) started charging toward my fish cleaning hubby! What fun you had!! :D

LauriesAsylum said...

Kimmi after we got over the initial shock of seeing the bears, it really was fun to watch them!