The first thing you'll notice upon entering Curry Village in Yosemite, are the signs everywhere warning about bears. They even have a looping video that runs all day long behind the counter when you sign in at the front office.
So, you get these "Bear Lockers" in which to stowe away anything that has a smell or taste to it - items ranging from the obvious like food and snacks, to deoderant and toothpaste. (Apparently the bears have developed a taste for domestic toiletries.)
We had the fear of God put into us with all this bear stuff.
Example:
One night as we lay huddled in a fetal position on top of our bare cots, we heard a noise. Actually it was a kind of low growl....and it continued to grow louder. Damn! Who left the toothpaste in our backpack
in the tent-cabin, instead of storing it in the Bear Locker like we were supposed to?! What to do now?
We fought over who would get out of the cot, retrieve the toothpaste and dash to the nearest "bear locker" to stash it (at 2:00 am). Overhead and lending to the "Deliverance" kind of atmosphere, a bare bulb was spinning around and around - we'd switched it on out of reflex (and yeah, terror) - and then hurriedly yanked it back off, fearing the light would attract the would-be intruder. Between the spinning bare bulb, the sound of our rapid breathing and the intermittent but continous low growling, we were paralyzed with fear on top of our stiff, stark cots in our lonely, spartan tent-cabin.
Can bears rip through wood?
The next morning, our next door "tent-cabin" neighbor asked us if we'd heard her husband snoring all night, and she apologized if we'd been disturbed by it.
We felt foolish.....
Beware of Bears!
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on Dec 14, 2005
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