Darrell Wong Gets Kissed By A Bear
When he went into this thing, Darrell had never seen a bear.
Indeed, he said, "I have never seen a bear" at a campsite near Kuna Creek while Dudley Doright was busy at the campfire fashioning himself a rope to hang a bear bag full of toiletries.
Bears in this part of the Sierra think of bear bags as piñatas. I figured Darrell was about to see a bear.
Little did I know that he would appear to pull them to him like some mystical bear charm, with four bear incidents in three days. He earned a nickname: Honey.
The first bear ambled through camp stopping only long enough to lick Darrell's backpack. I was already in my tent trying to go to sleep, but I heard Darrell say: "It's bear slobber!"
Later that night, I heard a telltale crack.
"Go away, go away," I singsonged in apparently dulcet tones that I would be teased about for the rest of the week.
Jim was shouting, running around in bare feet and his underwear in the glacier-tinged air, chasing the bear who had downed the bag and made off with his toothbrush. Darrell was chasing, too. He had to decide between picking up a rock or his camera. He took the camera.
The next night at Marie Lakes, yet another bear. Darrell saw it walk right by that backpack that he swears does not hold any Snickers bars. Still, no photo.
Our next campsite at Thousand Island Lakes didn't look quite as much like, "If I were a bear, I'd live here." It was more rocky than meadow. Darrell and Jim were sleeping outside -- it was too rocky for Darrell to stake his tent. We joked about the Bermuda Triangle of bear cannisters near the fire. Darrell had his camera ready, just in case.
Jim says he watched the bear come in. He tossed pebbles at Darrell to try to wake him up so he could get his photo. But Darrell snored away and the bear circled like a dog sniffing things as it went. The bear sniffed where Darrell's face was underneath a mummy sleeping bag.
"Hey, get outtta here," Jim said softly. He didn't want to startle the bear too much when it was in Darrell's face. The bear reared up a little and backed away.
I watched its shadow on the wall just a few inches away from me. Wow. Really big bear.
"I hope Darrell got his photo," I thought. And went back to sleep.