When Molly Met Bear

We headed out later than usual on our loop walk, which starts up the road past the survivalist's shack. (He's been away for a while.)

Just as we passed his shack Molly took off, and we could see she was after a cinnamon BEAR that was heading in the reverse direction a bit farther downhill from the road. We could see the bear really clearly, not just some orange blob and then gone.

We called her back repeatedly. She kept running until she was only fifty feet away from the bear and then she turned back and ran to us. Never once did she make a sound. The bear, an adult, just kept on walking the way it was walking, headed down the hill towards our house. There were no cubs following the bear.

If I didn't know that black bears can be cinnamon color I would be mighty scared it was a griz, but there are no grizzly bears in Colorado. We'd always wondered what Molly would do if she encountered a bear. We were SO PROUD of her.

Later on the same hike we saw some elk and a fox skull (I think). It was still too fresh to bring home. I hadn't brought my camera today, but even if I had I was way too busy getting excited about the bear to think of taking a picture.

Do you think it might be a bear that's been eating our hollyhock blossoms?

Perils of Hiking

No, I'm not trying to imitate the Wyeth painting of "Christina's World". Hiking around here requires a lot of wiggling under barbed wire.

We set out on an adventure hike today deep into a canyon via bear and elk trails, down to a stream which seems very remote. But somehow we took a wrong turn and ended about 1000 feet above the stream where we thought we'd have lunch.

We discovered this as we were crossing a narrow rocky trail ledge. Looking far down below I saw a person walking in circles in a meadow, right by the stream. It was crazy. A place where you'd never think you'd see anyone else. I sat down to look at him thru binoculars because I was getting a bad case of vertigo and couldn't stand and hold binoculars too. My palms were sweating. To sit down there you had to just lean back, it was that steep.

Such a remote area, and it was obvious he was talking on a cel phone, making hand gestures as he kept circling. What could he be talking about? I said to Jon, "Either he's the manager of a small store and all the wrong orders came in, or the stock market has just tanked." woah, psychic sal on the trail. (maket did tank in case you didn't know)

Then Molly saw him and she got that "Rin Tin Tin must rescue" look that German Shepherds can get so I had to grab her by the collar and we quickly turned back and chose a different route home. 3 1/2 hours later I am mighty weary.

The Social Life

We're having friends over for dinner tonight- the first time since we got here three weeks ago that we'll be with friends.

We're serving turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, roasted vegetables, blueberry pie and a few other things. The "friends + leftovers" special. We've known our friend Mysterian for many years and like his girl friend too.

Name changed to protect a secret revealed: Mysterian is the only person we know who didn't lose money last year. You know why? He buried it in the back yard! We all thought he was a nut to do it but he gets the last laugh. And no, he's not a dog.

Speaking of nuts, there's the scary survivalist at the top of the hill. I've written about him before. He's the one who posts angry signs and drills holes in rocks for fun. He's been up the hill this year since April, with no running water, and says he plans to leave soon. We're hoping. He's a smiling belligerent, if you know the type. Let's call him Stagolee.

Years ago before we knew better, we'd heard if you leave stale jelly donuts out in a field you'll attract bears. We considered it. But we thought we might attract Stagolee instead.



He left these buns in a gift bag on our front step with a weird note about snacks, and some avocados. In the past when he's dropped off gifts they've been followed a few days later by documents in a plastic bag that he wants us to sign. Almost appealing, because it's so childish.

Think the bears will want the gourmet buns? Not leaving them my two nice pieces of chocolate, the reward for spending hours on a black slate floor that won't get clean.

(yeah I know I'll probably get anonymous comments about what a bitch I am for this post. can't help it folks.) But Stagolee cannot even type, much less use a computer.

Mushroom as Big as the Ritz

We retraced our hike from yesterday and here's the giant puffball mushroom. In my mushroom book it says a specimen like this one can contain 3 trillion spores. Take that, stimulus package!

It also said it's choice edible if the flesh is white, but we decided to leave it there. Added fun: we haven't seen any bear trace since we've been back, but today we saw a load of pitch black bear poo nearly as big as this mushroom, right on the path we'd walked yesterday. Knowing not all of you like those pictures, I left the camera in my backpack for that one.

another bear spotting

I almost ran over this bear on my way to town the other day. It was lying right in the driveway.

I picked it up and put it on this rock where it could enjoy the sun. It belongs to a nervous little Irish Setter who lives at the bottom of the road and is terrified of Molly. We don't know her name but she usually has a stuffed animal in her mouth.

When we came back from Ouray yesterday the bear had been reclaimed.

INTRUDER!!

I was a little rattled when I left for Sawpit to do a few errands, because I couldn't find my purse and was worried I might have left it in Silverton. After scurrying around our small and rather empty house I finally found it behind a door. I left in a hurry, with just the screen door closed and that has a big hole in it where Molly charged through.

Jon was upstairs and I had Molly with me. He was watching a dvd, when he heard loud noises coming from the kitchen, things spilling, paper ripping. He crept to the staircase, wondering if THE BEAR was in the house.

He came halfway down the stairs, then all the way down.

It was John McCain the white lab! He ripped up and ate all of a bag of dog food and a bag of expensive dog treats we'd picked up at the vets.

He's unrepentant. He's still lying by the door hoping to get back in!



His name is actually Jackson, and he has a last name too, maybe because so many labs are named Jackson.

I saw a bear yesterday

at least I think so. It was at the upper end of our big field, and I was down on the road with Molly. It was a slope sided black animal rushing into the woods. At first I thought it was a giant turkey.

didn't have a camera.

These fires are so upsetting to follow-- we're not getting any pictures but just listening to the knx live radio. AWFUL! Heartbreaking!

Wondrous Week

Jon took this picture last night at sunset.

Here's a quote from a long and dear friend, Warner:

...been a obama road warrior, just did 5 days back in columbus,
ohio...visiting 89 year old dad but really doing door to door shifts in working class
columbus areas...incredible experience that I'll remember forever; 50% white
(appalachian), 50% black area that I've driven through so many times, but never
really knew. Saw Barack on sunday, 65,000! (and me)...Back monday nite
late...voted...when OHIO flipped after 9PM I knew we WON! Jesse and I went up to
Times Square...it was better than new years eve...packed. And when at 11:01 the
huge CNN TV screens flashed the news...two older black women next to me started
crying...we did too...what an experience! We're going to the inaguration in january!!

Made me so happy to read that!



Wish Obama would make the turkey the national bird.



Molly loves the snow. I love following the tracks in the snow. This morning I followed two separate bear tracks. At first they were walking together up the hill, then they split. Their foot size was different, so maybe it's a mating pair! Woo! And they're not hibernating yet.



Coming down the hill I noticed the track of a third bear, and took this picture below. When I got home I noticed it was so fresh that the little spits of snow had not melted yet, and it was a super melty day. In other words, while I went up the hill, the bear crossed my path below. woo!

Indoor Bears

Getting hot in the kitchen waiting for election day to finally get here.



This beautiful illustration is by a relative of mine, Will Simmons, painted in 1947. We just had it framed. This photo doesn't do the lively color justice at all. I think the "museum glass" the framer talked us into may have made it harder to get a good picture. I always feel like a victim at frame shops.

Dressed for the Season

This weekend marks the start of hunting season for elk. Moose and bear hunting are over. So nuts that they allow moose hunting in the same state where they're spending money on reintroducing moose. Molly has a new jacket, lime yellow, but you can't tell from the picture.

The bear who passed by here is safe for winter. This giant load was filled with acorn shells. I didn't step in it. This was near our house, and must be from a big black bear.



We had a huge wind storm yesterday, so noisy that we didn't even hear this giant tree fall over. It looks a bit like a stagosaurus, but not from this angle.

Bear Where?

We haven't seen a bear up here all summer, but lately the signs are increasing, and this is one strong bear. This is typical of what we've been seeing: 16 foot dead logs rolled several feet, with one end scooped out. All that work to eat termites.

It sometimes looks as if this bear is working only about 20 minutes ahead of us on the trail.

As I look around my little office here I realize the sad truth, I've become one of those middle aged ladies who collects bears. I'm not even going to show you a picture of this desk.

I finally finished the gigantic stack of British detective/crime novels and am rereading "Lonesome Dove." I love this book. I could barely (bearly?) tear myself away to type this.

Just learned of the 5.4 earthquake in Chino Hills. I hope it's not a foreshock earthquake, because we're heading back to L.A. on Thursday.

We didn't see a bear today, but took another of these l o n g hikes which make us mighty sleepy hours before the sun goes down. good thing I got out last summer's crockpot and put a pot roast in it this morning. Molly came upon an elk calf in the aspen but we were able to call her off the chase.

I've been reading Elia Kazan's autobiography off and on the last few days. It seems pretty nervy to write a 900+ page autobiography, but he seems like a pretty nervy guy. When I first started it I thought it was going to be the best autobiography I'd ever read.

In between I'm reading from an incredibly tall stack of British mystery novels which Jayne Pilling left for me. She's got great taste in books, but I forgot one thing about Jayne-- she can read a novel in two hours. So I haven't put much of a dent in the books yet.

Tomorrow we're going to pick up that computer card so I can post photos. I found out it's inside a secret Fed Ex location across from the fire station, with a magnetic key underneath the tan box.

It's hard working with color on this laptop because there's so much light in the house. I really should be drawing in the closet!

In Colorado again

We left the house at 4:30 am and arrived here at 8 pm. We ate fried chicken and peanut butter sandwiches along the way. Gas cost about $160. We stopped at City Market and got two bison steaks. The house was in reasonable shape, and we felt like zombies as we stumbled up the stairs. We brought the Pixie frog with us, as well as Molly and two basil plants.

I brought all the cables so my laptop would work, and even the remote, but damn if I didn't forget the cables I need to download the pictures from my camera to my laptop, because the camer uses a Sony memory card and the laptop's not Sony. I took some nice pictures of our Joad like packed vehicle but you'll just have to imagine them.

The aspen trees and scrub oaks are just starting to leaf in, and the wild irises mostly haven't bloomed yet. On our walk today Molly chased a fox for half a minute. We'd never seen foxes up here before. She might have been pregnant. Her belly looked really round.

Later we went to check if the pond still had water in it, and found the path to the pond is now a bear path, with 3 scat piles along the way. so that was exciting.

The picture I took just now with the cel phone-- later this week I'll get replacement cables in Montrose. Still exhausted but here we are.

Pictures from Knight's Inlet

There are a lot of pictures here, but I thought I'd post them in a slide show. View what you want.

Here's a link to the same pictures bigger, on flickr.

Look Who's Back in Town

We had a most wondrous time at the Knight Inlet Lodge in British Columbia. We saw many black bears and a handful of grizzlies too, all from small boats at a very close distance. I'll post more pictures as the week goes by.

Winter stayed longer than usual in the area, and most of the grizzlies hadn't woken from hibernation yet, but the ones we saw were magnificent.

We were sure we'd like the wildlife sightings, but had no idea we'd have so much fun with the other people who'd come on this Vital Ground trip.

I was surprised that for the first time in my life I could remember people's names, quite well. I wondered if this was going to be permanent. Jon said maybe it's like reverse Alzheimer's. Wouldn't that be a treat? Or not?



This is an osprey. Bald eagles were almost as common as crows. They stole this osprey's fish right after he did a dive bomb to fetch it.

I really enjoyed reading all your posts on my future/past blog last week-- I read them last night after we got home at ten. We were a week without newspaper, radio, computer, phone etc. Totally unplugged. It was great.

Wonder what it's like!

We're here by the red spot. Hope we're seeing grizzlies. Hope we're not falling into the water. Hope my camera works and I can show you wondrous bear pictures next week. Have you ever seen a bear in the wild?

Bart the Bear

About 14 years ago we attended the first Vital Ground get together in Montana. It was before the movie celebrities got involved.

The guy who was the inspiration for Hayduke in "Monkey Wrench Gang", Doug Peacock, was there. So was Jean Craighead George, the writer. Her brothers were some of the first in the usa to study grizzlies. It was a very wonderful weekend.

This is a picture of Doug Seus with his much loved movie bear Bart. Bart passed away a few years ago. Doug did a training demonstration for us all, with Bart, that was one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced. He trained Bart using baked beans , Hawaiian Punch and love. In this shot he's ladling the baked beans. You can see a can of punch in his belt pack.

Web Cam of where we're going

I'm testing this to see if it refreshes during the day. This is the floating lodge where we will be staying next week on our Wild Bear Adventure.

We imagined we'd travel lots after Dinah left for college, (or rather Jon imagined that), but the reality of flying both financially and physically, plus psychololgical abuse at the airport, has made us slow to move. This is our big trip for this year.

Wild Bear Adventure

On Sunday morning we're flying to Campbell River, B.C. Canada for the Wild Bear Adventure. We're staying at Knight Inlet Lodge and hoping to see GRIZZLY BEARS! And maybe orcas too.

It's the time of year when the bears have just come out of hibernation and the cubs are walking with the sows. The trip is sponsored by Vital Ground, an organization that saves land for grizzlies through easements and purchase. We'll be hearing lots of presentations on grizzlies. The lodge is floating, and we'll mostly be in boats and kayaks. The last time I was in a kayak I flilpped it over, so Jon's a little worried about that.

We went to a Vital Ground conference many years ago in Montana, but the only bear we saw was Bart the Bear.

I'm preparing blog posts for every day I'll be away, so you won't all just disappear. We get back the following Saturday, with no communication possible in the meantime.

The illustration was the cover for a bear book my mother wrote and her cousin illustrated, sometime in the 1940's.