Submitted by: Scott Chisholm
It was about 4:30 AM and I was sleeping in my tent. I remember that I was dreaming about something fun, probably margaritas on the patio at Earls on day off. Then my dream started to change. I was back in my tent listening to the sounds of the forest. One of those sounds was some sniffing and heavy breathing. Hmm, who could that be? This could be an interesting dream!
Uh, oh. I’m not dreaming! I’m really in my tent and there really is some heavy breathing going on – and it’s outside my tent! I opened my eyes to see a big black nose pressing against the wall of my tent and I knew what was going on. A bear was looking for breakfast.
What are you supposed to do if you are in your tent, it’s 4:30 AM and nobody is up or even all that close by? How about if you are all zipped up in a mummy bag? I have a Swiss Army knife! Yeah, right.
I didn’t know what to do. If I startled the bear all he would have to do is reach out and slap me. I figured that I needed to let him know that I was in here in a non threatening way. So, I grunted. He stopped breathing, perhaps to hear a little better, waited for what seemed like an eternity and then scurried away. Hurray–I will live to see another day!
Man was I ever awake now! The adrenaline going through my system was unbelievable. If only I could have taken advantage of that surge of energy by planting a couple of early morning boxes.
So why did I get visited? The bear had about 35 tents to choose from. I kept my toiletries and other smelly stuff in the dry shack as instructed. Oops – that’s it. I left my juice crystals in my daybag under my vestibule. I will NEVER do that again!
PICTURE DESCRIPTION
I took this picture several hours after my rude awakening. Notice the juice crystals on the Tupperware. Oops.