Enter, Black Bart

After a very long and hot day in Denver yesterday, Red returned home to his posh retreat where we were shared a steak and watched a movie together for the first time in several weeks. With the front door propped wide open, we were taking in the cool night breeze while the fresh mountain air swirled around our living room when suddenly I heard a disturbance at the front door, just a mere three feet away from me. My only protection...thin nylon screen and piece of PVC pipe beside me. "Red! Something's out there," I squeaked, scrambling out of his way, nearly tossing my steak sideways. I could sense that the disturbance was much larger than Sally, our resident fox and I knew it was much larger than the raccoon we had met earlier through our bedroom window. It could only be one thing, I feared inside my terror stricken thoughts. At Red's hasty stroke of the porch light, there it stood, Black Bart; all 200+ pounds of muscle, fur and teeth. He looked at Red and wandered slowly up the hill beside our house, only to stop, take another look at Red, I think to size him up, but alas, Black Bart meandered back up into the woods.

When we lived in Larkspur, we had encountered bears a few times and it was exciting. One time, a bear was in our tree in the backyard...our two dogs had treed him. My daughter, Sydney, feared the bear would hurt our dogs so she stood below this bear and struggled to get our dogs back into the house. Of course, as a mother, I freaked out that my daughter is standing right below this bear who seemed very annoyed. Sydney, unconcerned, treated this bear like it was a kitten in the tree! Against my strong encouragment (many severe words) to make her get back inside, she did accomplish the mission and the bear seemed most grateful to her when he climbed down, offered a friendly nod and wandered back up into the trees.

Another encounter with bears left me a changed person. We had been camping near Red Feather Lakes with our daughters and sons-in-law and grand-daughter. We all love to camp but for Amanda and me, as soon as the sun goes down, our imaginations rise to the occasion...our husbands just love this about us. When darkness falls, bear is constantly on the brain...every noise and every sound can be attributed to a bear sneaking up on us.

It was our last camping night and we had already scared the crap out of each other over bears and so it was decided for us that it was time for bed. We all climbed into our tents and rested our heads...moments later, I awoke to the words, "Mommie! They're here!" This could only mean one thing...code for BEARS IN THE CAMP! I flicked on my flashlight and I saw 3 sets of eyes peering into my tent! It's amazing how fast your entire life can really flash before you! I don't remember the next few minutes...other than Red and my son-in-law, Greg stomping around camping telling those bears to get out! Well, that will show them, I huffed...still shaking in my slippers. So, we all decided to go back to bed, but those stubborn bears returned! And that's when Amanda and I said, "We're outta here!" As we evacuated our camp at 2 a.m., we saw where the bears had completely torn a camp apart down the road! Tents were down and camping equipment was scattered everywhere. It looked as if a bomb had gone off. And then all our eyes landed on the campers' car...the bears had opened the car door and pulled the entire back seat out of the car and left it torn in the campsite.

Did I put you in the camping mood?