I’m sure your family has some stories that get told over & over again. I remember my grandfather telling me the same stories of how he met Grandma, and other stories that he would repeat & retell many times over the years. Well, I thought it would be good to write down some of my family’s stories that we keep telling each other. I’m going to start with a story about a bear encounter that happened about 10 years ago. It’s mostly my son’s story because he was the one who experienced most of it. I only witnessed the last part of the story. But, because he was only about 9 years old at the time (maybe 8?) and he told me all the details, and I remember them well still – I can tell the story. My younger daughter, who wasn’t even alive at the time, requests to hear this story often.     

Family Story: Bear Encounter at Yosemite   

We were on our typical family camping trip in California -me, my husband, and my two children (from a previous marriage) who were ages 6 & 9. This time we were camping in Yosemite. We had reservations for about 3 nights in the Upper Pines campground. We pulled in the first evening rather late – it was already dark. When we arrived at the ranger kiosk and checked in to our camping spot we were told that there was a bear who had been coming close to the campsites, and had been causing problems and was unafraid of people and that we needed to keep all food within arms reach , and that we needed to use the bear-safe container to store all food. This was all fairly normal to us. We had used bear-safe containers before and felt confident about it all. The whole “keep your food within arms reach” seemed like it might be a little over the top, but we said we understood and agreed to do just that.    

That night all went fine. We ate & pitched out tents in the dark, and went to sleep. I was reading the book “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson. And, if you have ever read that book then you probably remember all the bear attack stories that he talks about as he’s researching for his trip. Well – that part of the book – the bear attack stories- is what I was reading about that night. It was perhaps a hint at what was to happen the next night.   

                                                                                  

The following night…  

After making & eating dinner, I decided to get in bed and read more of my book with my flashlight. My 6 year old daughter was already in her little pink Disney Princess tent – asleep. And, my son & husband were staying up to make s’mores.    

From what my son told me:   

He and my husband were sitting around the campfire roasting marshmallows. The graham crackers, chocolate & bag of marshmallows were on the picnic table. The picnic table was approx. 8-12 feet away from the campfire.    

At some point, my husband needed to go to the restroom. So, he got up and told my son that “If any bears come, just tell them to go away”. (Sigh – I guess he wasn’t exactly taking the whole “keep all food within arms reach” thing seriously.) Anyway – he left to go to the restroom. I was unaware that he had left the campsite – still reading in the tent.   

My son said that the bear came from the other side of the campfire, walked around/behind the bear-safe container & in front of my daughter’s pink tent (where she’s sleeping). The bear walked over to the picnic table, while my son watched – holding his marshmallow roasting stick. The bear then walked back away – back the way he had come, and then returned to the table. 

The bear then stood up on his hind legs to reach the top of the table – to get the s’mores fixings. The bear started eating – probably graham crackers, while my son watched.    

At some point the bear stopped and looked at him, and my son told the bear to “Go away, bear!” while shaking his marshmallow stick at the bear, and staying where he was sitting at the campfire. Once he said that, the bear enforced his/her power/authority by hitting it’s front paws on the table. I’m sure my son was really scared at this point.   

Meanwhile, I was in my tent, and I started hearing things – like things falling off the table, or who knows what. I stopped reading and decided to unzip the side window of the tent. 

While unzipping the window, I heard my son say “Mom…. There’s a bear….!” Once I got the window unzipped and I could see him – I saw that he was looking over toward the table (which I couldn’t see from that side of the tent). I then quickly went to unzip the door of the tent, and as I looked out the door of the tent, I could see a very large bear on top of the table, with it’s back end towards me and the bear looking around at me! At that point it felt like everything was going in slow motion. I made a motion with my arms to shoo the bear away. The bear watched me and thought about it for a split second and then decided to run off, jumping off the table and running off, away from our campsite. And, as it ran off, you could hear a wave of people shouting, yelling, clanging things at the bear.   

I called for my son to come over to the tent, and I hugged him and reassured him. He was pretty shaken up and was crying. I then got out of the tent, grabbed the tablecloth and wadded up the whole thing (s’mores stuff and all) and put it in the bear-safe container.   

A couple guys came over and shined their flashlights at out campsite and asked if we were ok. We were.   

And then, a couple minutes after that, my husband came back from the bathroom and said “I heard there was a bear going through the campground.” (Ugh!)