Timberline: A third year of Bear visits.

Timberline: A third year of Bear visits.

(Timberline part 21)

One other year when I was getting ready to go to camp I had reports from the previous course that there was a bear that had been in their garbage during the week and so they had to lock it into the back of a vehicle. When we got there they told us that the bear had even been there the night before. I didn’t have my rifle this time since I pretty well figured out the first time that I wouldn’t get a chance to shoot even if it was the other old bear and I couldn’t really get myself to take the chance since I might only wound it and that would cause us to be in more danger than just leaving it alone since it behaved itself the last time after we learned how to keep the food locked up.  The previous course also had let us know what worked best for them to keep it out of the trash. A couple of days after we had been at camp I walked up the hill and just over form where the showers were located and found where the bear had taken the trash during the last camp. There was a spot under the tree less than 50 feet from the showers and yet still hidden from the showers by a small hill. There was a bag of trash torn open and laying around an area where it was obvious that the bear had slept and eaten. I went the 100 feet back to camp, picked up a new trash bag, returned to the spot and cleaned it all up. We didn’t see the bear nor any tracks or traces of it during the week we were there but I am sure it was probably not very far off. The boys all did as they were instructed on their outpost camps and we had no incidents like the earlier one where the bear had carried off the treats and breakfast items. I wondered if it was the same bear but had no way of knowing since it didn’t seem to stick around during our stay.