Boo Boo Bear

7/29/08
Coming back over the pass I found the Tahoe basin thick with smoke. I learned at a visitors center that the fire was near Mariposa on the western side of Yosemite and that the smoke was mostly blowing northeast. Heading straight to Echo Lakes would put me more in the smoke‘s path than I wished to be so I swung further south, to Carson Pass, first stopping in South Lake Tahoe for some fresh organic peaches and strawberries. I camped at the no-frills Big Meadow CG: no water, no picnic table, a fire pit but fires were banned. Basically it was bear box and outhouse and a place to put my tent, but it was quiet and free, just fine for my needs.

I arrived just before dusk, put my food in the bear box, pitched my tent, then came back to the bear box to brush my teeth. New to this game, I drifted off maybe 15 feet to look at the stars, for what - 20 seconds, leaving my bear box ajar. When I turned around a bear had its nose in my bear box. I let out a primordial yell and it stood up and turned to face me. Luckily for me it was a juvenile, and when I yelled again it scurried away. If it were an adult it would likely have had already taken control of a cooler and that would have been it, because for bears, possession is 9/10 of the law. (The other 1/10 is violence.) But mine was more of a Boo Boo bear, and it hadn't yet figured out where that pungent smell was coming from. The next morning the rest room was trashed. I imagined the bear enraged it had lost out on the strawberries.