Thursday August 14, 2008 7:00 pm.Cave Mountain National Forest Campground
(near Glacier National Park, MT)
After our second day of driving from Denver, CO to Kodiak, AK Meghan and decided to camp at the foot of the Montana Rocky Mountains in the Lewis & Clark National Forest. The campground sits on the banks of the North Fork of the Teton River. We arrived at the campground late in the evening and had our choice of several campsites. After browsing the available sites Meghan and I chose a beautiful site with lots of privacy at the end of the campground. I remember wondering to myself why such a idyllic site was vacant even though there were several other parties at the campground. I soon shook off the worries and thought that we must have lucked into the spot. Meghan went to the pay station while I set up the cook stove to prepare our dinner -- shish-kabobs and beans -- Rebel (our dachshund) stood guard near the site's picnic table. Meghan returned from the register station and said that another group of campers had told her that there was a bear in the area. "They said that a group that was tent camping for the last few days didn't have any trouble, though" Meghan related to me. "Oh okay I said, sounds good."
After cooking our shish-kabobs and sitting down for a long-awaited protein-rich dinner we began to relax. I remember reaching for my second Big Sky beer and the bottle opener when Meghan gasped, "Oh God there's a bear." Sure enough a larger sow grizzly was watching us from the hillside above our site. "What should we do?" asked Meghan. From the table we watched the grizzly slowly pace above our site. Then the bear seemed to realize that her appearance did not scare us away from our delicious protein-rich dinner. Perhaps out of frustration the large bear, in a display of power, stomped and scratched at the ground -- looking very menacing. Well the display scared me and definitely frightened Meghan - "Oh God!" Meghan gasped and began hurriedly packing up our half-eaten long-awaited meal. I stepped on to the table top and faced the bear with a very odd sense of confidence. I am sure, however, that had the bear taken one or two more steps in our direction the feeling confidence would have drained out of me as quickly as the color from my face. While Meghan packed up dinner, the stove, the tent, and our (silent) guard dog Rebel I stood on the table two, bear spray cans at the ready, and watched the bear circle our site until it disappeared into a thick stand of trees.
We moved to another site across the campground. I was excited about the encounter while Meghan was very shaken up.
After cooking our shish-kabobs and sitting down for a long-awaited protein-rich dinner we began to relax. I remember reaching for my second Big Sky beer and the bottle opener when Meghan gasped, "Oh God there's a bear." Sure enough a larger sow grizzly was watching us from the hillside above our site. "What should we do?" asked Meghan. From the table we watched the grizzly slowly pace above our site. Then the bear seemed to realize that her appearance did not scare us away from our delicious protein-rich dinner. Perhaps out of frustration the large bear, in a display of power, stomped and scratched at the ground -- looking very menacing. Well the display scared me and definitely frightened Meghan - "Oh God!" Meghan gasped and began hurriedly packing up our half-eaten long-awaited meal. I stepped on to the table top and faced the bear with a very odd sense of confidence. I am sure, however, that had the bear taken one or two more steps in our direction the feeling confidence would have drained out of me as quickly as the color from my face. While Meghan packed up dinner, the stove, the tent, and our (silent) guard dog Rebel I stood on the table two, bear spray cans at the ready, and watched the bear circle our site until it disappeared into a thick stand of trees.
We moved to another site across the campground. I was excited about the encounter while Meghan was very shaken up.
2 comments:
Dear Bruce,
Did Rebel get bored on the long car ride? I would think that a small dog like Rebel might get bored on a long car ride. Just wondering!
Your fan,
Pat
Well Pat, I am glad that you raised the issues of small dogs, boredom, long, car, ride. To begin the discussion I think that it might be instructive to examine the roots of each of these keywords in an effort to more deeply understand the topics being raised. Let us start with ride. The verb 'ride' claims its origin from the Cyrillic - 'to sit atop.' As you might notice the web album created by this blog's author features several pictures of the dog in question sitting atop a passengers lap, hence lap dog. Second, car of course is derived from the shortened version of carp - a bottom-feeding fish found in many lakes, first introduced to North America by a German who believed that America's lakes and streams should be filled with the mustacheoed fish. To do so, train cars perched over a river on a bridge released their entire contents into the water below. Thirdly, long is an olde english word describing an object that is 'shorter than it is wide.'
Fouthness, boredom was first heard in the Early Middle Ages when peasants would talk about the reign of their lord wherein no dance parties, drugs or booze was allowed -- it was not a kingdom, but a boredom. And now you will understand that all of points back to small dogs -- so small in fact that they might fit onto one's lap where it is never boring.
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