On one particular family visit came an appeal from my grandchildren: “Grandpa, tell us the bear story.” But there remain other properly skeptical family members. I don’t blame them. The story is simply too ... too unbelievable.
However, this story absolutely true, without a single exaggerated word. I swear.
By this point of my life I’d experienced four encounters with High Sierra Black Bears. This one more memorable than the others.
“Dusk fell as imperceptibly as dust. A moon, half full, took possession of the sky and, one by one, the stars appeared, first Venus and then slowly scattered constellations. I lay looking up at the stars and could feel the earth turning beneath me.” --Will Ferguson
That’s how I feel when stargazing on our camping trips. It explains why I always sleep under the stars instead of inside a tent (unless it rains.) It explains why we don’t use tents on my expeditions. There are life affirming, if not ephemeral moments, only lasting fractions of a second when we witness shooting stars. So I maximize these fleeting affirmative experiences by giving students every chance to collect shooting stars, all night, every night.
Interesting how sounds are pulled into our dreams, like your cell phone rings but you answer it in your dream. This one started with a ...
Click.
The midnight sound was pulled into my dream. But a tiny awakened voice opened my eyes. Another pitch black moonless night in Yosemite. Recognizing the sound of my van door closing with a click I craned my neck to look back at the van. Nothing to be seen the the blackness. Then inside my van, movement. A large floor to ceiling black mound. Unbelievably, a black bear had gotten inside most likely attracted to the residual smell of food that had been carried for hours in the van.
She was big.
I stood. She was big and moving forward. I was imagining her tearing up the inside of the van looking for food. But how was I going to force her out? Remembering the loose sliding window pane on the door I thought it would rattle loudly when I pounded the glass with the palms of my hands. I had to act quickly.
Then I remembered the message a Park Ranger had delivered to my students. “When facing a bear, never run. Stand up tall, look as big as you can.”
Barefoot and in my under ware, I slowly opened the back door. Crouched as I stepped around to the side. I was stealthy, she didn’t know I was there. In a flash I jumped up, pummeling the window glass with the palms of both hands in a sudden loud ruckus. She was so large yet she shot out of the back of the van with startling speed... then stopped and turned only 30 yards away. Behind her I could just make out her two baby cubs, learning from an expert how to pillage food from sleeping campers. Staring at me, calculating, determining “Who are You? Do I run or do I charge?” She takes a step forward.... coming straight back toward me.
Shit! ...
I remember a Park Ranger once delivered to my students. “When facing a bear face to face, don’t run. Stand up tall, look as big as you can. Make alot of noise.”
How am I to look big, standing 5 foot 6 in my bare feet? Epiphany: I streak to the back stepping up to stand in the opening of the van. I raise both hands high. Now I’m over 7 feet tall. She freezes, then...
She takes another step toward me, testing me.
She is so big.
Click HERE for why there are steel food lockers in Yosemite National Park.
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