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| August 28, 2008 Carol and Cris see a black bear at Bishop Pass, 11,960'. This is the highest elevation Carol has ever seen a bear, and it's far above treeline, so the bear surprises her a bit. She starts waving her trekking poles around and talking to the bear while Cris gets a couple of photos including this one of the bear looking right at them. It then ambles away through the rocks and alpine tundra landscape. August 10, 2006 A girl that is sleeping next to Carol in Lyell Canyon in Yosemite reports that a bear tugged on her hat and sniffed her sleeping bag in the middle of the night. She tells the bear to, "Shoo." Carol sleeps through all this and admires the girl for being so calm! Carol also is happy she chose to sleep in a tent that night and not out in the open. August 9, 2006 Carol is camping with a group of 9 other people in Lyell Canyon in Yosemite and she comes within 10 feet or so of a bear that's sniffing out the bear canisters that the group had. She screams and the bear runs away. May 28, 2006 Carol and Todd see a black bear cross Hwy 190 in Sequoia National Forest as they're driving between Cedar Slope and Quaking Aspen. It's the first bear Todd has seen since he was young. It's a medium-sized reddish brown bear. May 8, 2006 Carol and Rob see 5 bears in the Cades Cove area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, including a mother bear with 3 cubs. September 18, 2004 Carol and Andrew flush out a bear while driving up to Big Meadows in Sequoia National Forest. It runs along the road in front of the truck just long enough so they could get a good look at it and then it takes off into the brush. September 21, 2003 Carol drove up to the Black Mountain Grove and then over to the Peyrone Grove. In the Peyrone Grove she parks her truck off to the side of the road and walks over to a large sequoia tree. She flushes out a black bear, a pure black fellow, and he runs away from her. July 2003 Carol is awakened in the middle of the night two nights in a row by a bear getting into the neighbor's trash they've left out. June 7, 2003 Carol goes hiking up in Sequoia National Park with a friend and they see a small cinnamon-colored black bear on the side of the road. Also nearby are several young mule deer bucks. May 2003 Carol notices that a log 15 feet from her front door has fresh distinctive bear claw marks in it. One night later she awakens in the middle of the night to see a black bear in her front yard. April 19, 2003 Carol encounters a bear while on a solo camping trip - it steals baby wipes that she left on a log not 10 feet away from her. Carol feels bad that the bear probably had one heck of a stomach ache after eating them! Or maybe the bear just wanted to clean its paws? September 2002 Carol, Jeanette, and Shawn are caught in a bear jam in Yellowstone National Park and see a mother black bear and two cubs. Too cute! A week later Carol spotted her first grizzly in the lower 48 near the east border of Yellowstone National Park on the Shoshone National Forest. The bear was alongside the road just on the other side of the guardrail and Carol didn't even have to get out of her truck to get good pictures! July 5, 2002 Carol and Andrew spotted a large cinnamon-colored black bear while backpacking along the Continental Divide above Bighorn Lake, Mt. Zirkel Wilderness Area, Colorado. Thankfully the bear saw us and evidently didn't want to cavort with such smelly hikers so he took off running! May 2002 While camping with her mom at the Brush Creek Campground on the Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming, mom felt an animal rub up against the tent and her arm. Was it a bear? (What else could it be?) Carol immediately sat up and did the first thing that came to her mind, make noise. And what better way to make noise than by singing the Star Spangled Banner! Bear is apparently scared off by Carol's horrible singing. August 28, 2000 While sleeping in the back of her truck at the South Fork Campground in Sequoia National Park, Carol was awakened by a bear pushing the tailgate on the truck down. When she hopped into the cab and turned on the headlights, she saw three bears take off up the hill. July 11, 2000 Carol saw two bears in Huckleberry Meadow, Giant Forest, Sequoia National Park. Thankfully they were mindin their own business! July 10, 2000 Carol chased K-95, a rather large black bear weighing in at 495 lbs, out of the Lodgepole Amphitheater 30 minutes before her evening program. (But he just wanted to watch the slides and get his junior ranger badge!) August 1999 Carol saw a mother and two baby cubs near the Lincoln Tree in Giant Forest, Sequoia National Park. July 19, 1999 5:15 pm Carol is startled one evening while eating dinner in her cabin by a bear looking in at her. She chased it out of the housing area. There were at least half a dozen other chasing sprees that summer. July 11, 1999 Carol's roommate at Sequoia National Park, Brandy, left their cabin window open and a small black bear got into our kitchen cupboards and ate pistachios, raisin bran, and teriyaki sauce. Fortunately Brandy arrived home before the bear discovered our refrigerator and she scared him out of the cabin and up a tree. Bear tech, Jay, then arrived and he pelted the poor little guy with rubber bullets. He came out of the tree and got chased away by many crazy rangers. Later that night the bear returned and tried to get in via the window that was so conveniently left open earlier! June 20, 1999 While backpacking with fellow rangers, Lisa Ann and Vera, Carol spotted a large blonde-colored black bear near Bearpaw Meadow in Sequoia National Park. (Why did they name it that I wonder?) August 1998 Carol and Mindi saw five grizzlies in Denali National Park and just miss seeing a black bear near Portage Glacier. August 1998 While camping by herself in Yosemite National Park, Carol is awakened in the middle of the night by a bear sniffing around her tent, rattling the chain on the bear box, and then sitting on the edge of her tent! |
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