Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1999 23:32:34 -0700
Reply-To: Austin <austins@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Austin <austins@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Subject: one more TRUE BEAR STORY;
In-Reply-To: <001f01bf0516$7b92c960$e2199bd1@hpcustomer>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
At 09:21 AM 9/22/1999 -0700, you wrote:
>
> In response to this message I have a quote for you...
>One of the Rangers up in YOSEMITE told me when I inquired to the rumored
>"Bear in the area"...He said the reason we have bear problems is because
>"They can READ"...and he goes on to say these bears are so smart that they
>can read simple words like IGLOO, and COLEMAN then goes on to say: "We seem
>to have one Black bear that fancies OREO's, that's how he keeps his color
>and hence we named him code name OREO", to alert other Rangers that he's in
>the area....I don't know how much of this is true because he was laughing
>while he told his story.
>
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 a.m. 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
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