August 6, 2002
A guy from Shane's work went back packing on the John Muir trail last week. He went all by himself. He told Shane he wasn't going to take his dog because the dog would be bear food (bear food, not bear foot). So, the guy is back to work this week and did in fact run into a bear. He went to get some water and came back to find a bear had taken his backpack. So, the guy picked up a bunch of rocks, chased after the bear and got his backpack back, minus his food. Quite a trip. Good thing he left his dog at home.
When I was little, we would often go on camping trips up to Yosemite, mostly in the Valley. I had a couple of bear experiences of my own. We had a bear try to get into our cooler once, and he left the tooth marks to prove it. We had this cooler for years-my parents may still have it- that had these big bear tooth marks in it. It was kind of cool.
On another trip, we were camping with the Taylors. There were five of us kids. Michael was the oldest, Jenna and I were next in line, then Andrew and Chrissy. We were playing baseball one afternoon and Michael was up to bat. Out of the forest, standing on two legs comes this bear. He is coming for Michael and we are next. We start yelling, "Michael, there is a bear behind you!" He didn't believe us at first. He finally turned around and came face to face with the hungry bear. We ran as fast as we could into the nearest trailer screaming, Michael in the lead. Of course, our parents tell a different version of the story about a bear wandering into camp, minding it's own business. They claim it wasn't standing on it's hind legs and that it wasn't even that close to us, but that's not the way I remember it. My brother will tell you a version of the story quite similar to mine. If we had not run into the trailer as fast as our little legs would carry us, we would have been bear food. I think the bear might even have growled at us....
