Back From The Mountains

Turns out that internet in the forest is an iffy thing. But that was ok, we were so busy fighting off bears, there was really no time to blog. We stayed in a cabin for two days, and the exposure to nature should be enough to last me many years. Barring mental illness, I won't be going back without an armed escort.

Course, you can see from the picture of me and lumberkid, above, that yes, nature can be enjoyable. This picture was taken before the bear incident, though. Hey, I know you don't believe it. Well, here's proof:


This image is of the first bear, just before he attacked. Thank goodness, I had read the bear brochure and knew to bang pots and pans and whoop to show the bear that I wasn't to be messed with. Sadly, the bear hadn't even browsed through the brochure, and didn't know that he was supposed to be afraid. He kept trying to climb into the trash can so I had to wallop him with a frying pan. Turns out you can drive a bear a pretty fair distance if you get a good back swing and follow-through.

So ok, I've had this bear experience escaping with just my life and one very badly dented frying pan, so you'd think the US Forest Service would understand the need to clear an area around the camp with fire, right? I figured that burning the underbrush away for maybe 50 feet around the cabin would make it harder for the bears to hide. Well, 50 feet at first, there was a little overage, but I'm not altogether sure that it wasn't someone else's fire that took out the ranger station.

Anyway, we'll let the courts sort it out. Right now I'm back in San Francisco and it feels like I'm in a remake of Shaun of the Dead.