Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 23:57:23 -0700
Reply-To: Austin <austins@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Sender: Vanagon mailing list <Vanagon@Gerry.SDSC.EDU>
From: Austin <austins@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Subject: Re: Bear "facts"
In-Reply-To: <199709152008.NAA14014@natasha.>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
At 01:08 PM 9/15/97 -0700, you wrote:
>
>> In the morning, a bear (B-E-A-R) ripped a dumpster (remarkably similar to
>> a 67 VW bus to my way of reckoning at 0400 hours..)
>
>I used to be a Park Ranger up in Yosemite, and have many fond memories of
>dealing with bear destroyed cars. I will agree that most VW busses not
>only resemble your typical dumpster, but that some bears are known to
>actually prefer the German product -- the steel is thinner, better claw
>holds exist, and the stuff inside is tastier.
>
>There used to be a story about the Tioga VW bear. Several rangers I knew
>swore it was true, but it is a good story regardless...
>
OK, so THAT'S who the bear was....she AND her cousin, that is.
In 1991 I & the 2 rr's went up to Tuolumne Meadows for a planned few days
at Young Lake, Ragged Peak, Conness glacier, etc. Started out near
Lembert Dome, made it to Young lake (~ 8 miles), had some dinner,
*properly* stored our food between 2 trees & 15' up, & hit the sack. Comes
3 am & Mr. Tioga bear climbs one of the trees (picked the one right behind
the tent-scared the stuffing out of the three of us): the limb he's
crawling out on (that held my son's weight just fine) snaps & he crashes
down with our food sack, & wanders off. Next am we find what's left ~ 150
yards away....he'd had quite a feast. The hungry little ones decided fish
for breakfast, lunch, & dinner was stretching it, esp 'cuz ol' Dad is not
well known for his fishing abilities (trout are not an endangered species
when I'm after them).
So we hike our tired 'n' dirty butts back to Moby (the great white
Adventurewagen).....& find the passenger side window in a bazillion pieces
both inside & outside. Against all common sense I'd left the windows open
a crack, "cuz there was NO food, or food containers, anywhere inside.
Howsomever Ms Tioga bear (please note gender balance of 'guilty' parties)
knew what I didn't: my beloved little ones had surepticiously smuggled in
baggies full of M&M's - peanut, of course, chocolate covered raisins, &
other assorted survival food to enable them to endure the l-o-n-g trip from
the Bay Area. Of course they'd forgotten all about it when we started, but
*now* they remembered!!! So Ms T-bear sniffed out the goodies, crawled
through to the back, & spent a goodly amount of time chasing MnM's all over
the floor & into the corners where she captured them, leaving lots of
tongue-streak evidence on the cardboard I had covering the rug for the
trip. She'd put her hind feet on the front tire, hooked her claws through
the vent crack, & pushed/pulled the window 'til it broke. The alarm went
off, & of course Ms bear wasn't the least perturbed, according to the park
ranger who'd been through this many times before.
Yes, bears *ARE* able to read (~ 3rd grade level, I believe), they *ARE*
incredibly strong, and, unless you are between them & what they want, they
could care less how upset you get.
Austin
| 
