...and Bears, Oh My!!!

Just below the cabin, contemplating the lake

It was late afternoon.  After a full day outside -- hiking, forestry, hammock-and-a-book time -- we’d retreated indoors.  I was busy losing a game of MahJong on my ancient Gateway laptop and my husband was stretched out on the couch, winning a game of Sudoku (hard).  I heard a thump on the porch behind the house, vaguely assumed it was the dog after a ground squirrel, and kept clicking on matching tiles.  Suddenly my husband exclaimed “BEAR!”.  And indeed, there was, not ten feet from the mullioned glass door and large window looking out on the red rocks behind the cabin.  A shaggy cinnamon colored black bear was wandering by.

My second thought, after OMG, was “where’s the dog??!!”.  I shot out the front door, opposite the bear’s side, and called, firmly, for Bump.  She obviously knew the bear was quite nearby and slunk carefully out from underneath the deck, the whites of her eyes showing, up the stairs and inside more obediently than ever before.

I looked out the front windows, the direction the bear was headed.  He (guessing here) was standing about 20 feet off the deck on the edge of the building pad, looking down the hill towards the lake.  I grabbed the camera and ran out the door to get some photos.  My husband was urging the bear to move along, throwing some rocks his way but not hitting him, despite his intentions.  I can’t remember if we were yelling at the bear -- I was so rattled with nerves and excitement that I kept hitting the on/off button on my camera instead of the shutter and was baffled when it kept shutting down.

The bear headed over the edge towards the lake, hesitating near some rocks.  There were a lot of folks down at the lake fishing and making quite a bit of noise.  The bear turned around and headed back towards us, but adjusted his course down the western slope from the cabin.  He was in no rush at all -- aware of us but not concerned, and not acting at all aggressive.  The bear took his time traversing our hillside, eventually heading for the spring and its dense foliage at the back of the property.  We wandered down the drive a bit and could see him moving about there for a bit, and then we lost sight of him.

Heading towards the spring and PIke National Forest

Bear claw marks

This bear looked young -- not cub young, but maybe a year or two old.  He was losing his winter coat and looked scraggly, but there was no mistaking the power there.  This may well have been the bear that visited me 10 nights in a row in the trailer last year, right after I dropped my husband off at the airport for his return to Tucson.  The bear had marauded our site while we overnighted in Denver, knocking down bird feeders, slashing our seven gallon jerry jug, yanking the drip pan out of the gas grill.  That night, and every night for the rest of my stay, he’d show up shortly after dark, grunting and groaning and rocking the trailer.  My dog Bump would sense him coming before I did, and her slinking off in the most exquisite slow-motion to the farthest corner in the bedroom was a sure sign.  My trailer was a 33 foot Airstream Argosy, tightly constructed of steel, and I kept the windows closed on the side the bear could reach (the ground feel off on the other side).  Despite playing the radio, loud, leaving the outside lights on and shining a flashlight out the window, I never spotted the bear, even when I could hear it outside.  Every morning brought new paw-prints on the trailer, snotty-nosed dribbles down the windows, and more paw prints on all the door handles of both vehicles.  Looking back, I am amazed that I didn’t simply pack up the car -- in broad daylight -- and head south.  About 18 trailers and cabins had attempted bear break-ins; about half of those were successful.  No one was hurt, except in the pocketbook.  Still, there were calls for the bear to be “harvested”.  I would feel terribly guilty if this bear, encouraged by all our bird feeders, unsecured trash, and food left in trailers, cabins, and sheds, were killed.  We’ve moved into the bear’s habitat, not the other way around, and we’re being irresponsible neighbors.

The bear and I are in competition for these!

My Sierra Club Naturalist’s Guide to the Souther Rockies says that American Black Bears are very common in aspen and mixed aspen-coniferous communities (and this area is that), as they feed on the aspen buds, catkins, and new leaves in the spring and return in the fall for the berries grown in the understory shrubbery.  Our land has hundreds if not thousands of aspen and wild raspberries are everywhere around the cabin.  Normally crepuscular and nocturnal (someone should let this bear know as he’s been seen from 10 AM right through to the dinner hour and beyond), early summer is mating season, so perhaps this one’s out roaming, looking for love.

I hope he finds it soon and heads back into the deep forest...for his own good.  I’m here to enjoy nature, not contribute to its demise.