Bear ate my lunch.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
No really, it ate my dinner too.According to the Yosemite park ranger, bears in April have just come out of hibernation but their food isn't in season for a few weeks. This means a lot of bears are roaming the campsites for food, and if your locker isn't properly latched, you might wake up at 4am to the sound of a hungry bear scarfing your dinner down about 2ft from you head. With only a piece of flimsy nylon tent to protect you from becoming dessert, you wonder if the seemingly innocuous pineapple-scented sunblock you used would ultimately bring your demise.
Food eaten by bear:
- Loaf of sourdough bread
- 1lb salame
- 1lb cheese
- 8 Cliff bars
- 2lbs trail mix
- Full box of oatmeal
- 2lbs chocolate
- 2 packages dried mangoes, 1 pack cherries, 1 cranberries
- Beef jerky
- 16oz tub hummus
(It left 1 piece of chocolate and some cherry tomatoes. I guess it got full -- it had broken into our neighbor's bear box too.)
Sean and I went out to view the remains once the bear was finished. We put the the saliva-covered plastic wrappers and ripped-open coolers back into the bear box, and went off to the bathroom to pee our fears out. We didn't sleep very well after that.
On the other hand, Shannon (who slept with earplugs) awoke bright and early to discover a properly-sealed bear box with shredded food containers inside. Confused, she approached a park ranger who said that a squirrel might have gotten locked inside the box overnight and consumed the food. Back at the campsite, she tried to scare the squirrel out of the box, but after some thought she started to wonder how many squirrels it would take to consume 20 lbs of food, and if we could possibly have locked an entire army of rodents into our storage box. Amusing.
In the end, Shannon woke us up, and we all had a nice conversation with the park ranger, who said bear boxes get broken into pretty often. Before leaving, he advised us not to eat any leftover food, since bears carry the bubonic plague. Right. Not only was I hungry and had no food, but the expert thought I was going to get Black Death.
(1) Hetch Hetchy (2) Campsite.
Comments:
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haha... remind me to tell you about my own Yellowstone camping experience.
Oh screw it, I'll just tell you now.
I woke up at dawn to the sound of a massive beast slowly snuffling his way around our campsite. Was saying my prayers, envisioning a horrific trampling-inside-the-tent demise. After like 3 hours, (or maybe 5 minutes), I realized it was my tent-mate SNORING.
I love camping.
Oh screw it, I'll just tell you now.
I woke up at dawn to the sound of a massive beast slowly snuffling his way around our campsite. Was saying my prayers, envisioning a horrific trampling-inside-the-tent demise. After like 3 hours, (or maybe 5 minutes), I realized it was my tent-mate SNORING.
I love camping.
# posted by 
: 5:39 PM
: 5:39 PM
i miss camping!!! it's too logistically difficult to do here. and i'm lazy. come visit! i think jetblue has sales if you travel on tuesday or wednesday.
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