Nightmare bear II

In New York's Adirondack Mountains, my wife Karen and I stopped at a dark and gloomy campsite during a hike to the summit of Mt. Colden. It felt gloomy because of the densely packed and spindly spruces--none of which were good for hanging our food bag to be truly bear-safe. We hung the bag from a thin, arching tree and hoped for the best. But the best was not to be.

At 2:00 a.m. we awakened to sounds of rummaging outside our tent. I thought it was a raccoon, so I crawled out of the tent barefoot and in my briefs; about three short steps from the tent I was stopped in my tracks by a loud growl! Intimidated, I retreated to the safety (?) of our tent. We sat at the tent's door, searching with our flashlight beam for what we were now sure was a bear. When we found it, we had a big surprise ... it had climbed a tree just 20 feet from our tent and was clinging to the trunk a scant 25 feet above. And there it spent the night. Whenever we played the flashlight beam on the bear, it threatened us by popping its jaws. Other times it coughed in a way suggesting something lodged in its throat.

We didn't get much sleep that night, but finally managed to doze off. We awakened to the sound of the bear's claws scraping on the trunk as it descended the tree. The bear immediately headed toward our food to finish off what it had failed to eat the night before. Our shouts from the tent didn't dissuade him, but it left immediately when we emerged from the tent and stood tall. It shambled over the ridge, not to be seen again.

We heard a year or two later that a bear in that vicinity had to be destroyed because it was intimidating and raiding hikers. Since that time, Karen has now become an expert in hanging food in difficult situations, using elaborate techniques involving multiple ropes, a carabiner, several trees and occasionally a pully. So, with luck, we shouldn't be raided again, unless a frustrated bear decides to eat us rather than bother with our dried food!

Nightmare bear 3

I was hiking in Michigan's Porcupine Mountains at summer's end in 1970; accompanying me were my younger brother Bruce and college friend Brad Cross. We had just hiked along a stretch of Lake Superior beach and came into camp late. We didn't have a tent, so we stretched our sleeping bags out on the hemlock needles covering the forest floor. Just after dark, someone said there was a bear in the vicinity.

We went to see it, and I distinctly remember shining a flashlight in its eyes and seeing eyeshine like glowing red embers (I'm not sure the color I remember is entirely true to science--but "menacing red" is how I would name that shade of lipstick.) It was a bear accustomed to eating human food, and looked like it was going to hang around a while, so we picked up our sleeping bags, shouldered our packs, and headed out to the beach.

Being really tired, we simply stretched our sleeping bags out on the beach, even though the whole beach consisted of uncomfortable 2" cobblestones. We soon felt a crawling sensation inside our bags and on our necks and heads. The creepy-crawlies were spiders, and there were way too many to be comfortable on the beach (talk about nightmares!). We decided we would be better off with the bear than with the spiders, so we went back into the forest, where we spent an uneventful night.

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