mountain high west Image Stock Page: Bear in Camp I was the crew cook for the PCTA Region 1 Golden Oak Spring project, 16 - 25 May 2008. One day late in the week the crew was working trail south and I was in 10-7 code. I was attracted to a noise of some kind, and a brown shape emerged from the front of Pete's project truck. The sequence that follows went roughly like this: We're at a wind farm - whoa, here he comes, I grab the camera - it sees me but goes to check out the tool trailer - finds the orange jug - chomps on it, chain saw oil all over the ground - shuffling back, it heads toward me - yikes! look at those claws - I shout like crazy, it runs but suddenly turns back around - I shout again and it goes and sits - now going downhill it turns toward a couple tents - I get close and shout but it tears up a tent, I shout more, and it runs down the hill and into the trees - there's the tent - there are the dirty claw marks - crew returns, it's almost raining, tent can't be fixed but fortunately a spare tent is found. As an aside, in June of this year bears were roaming all around Bishop, 40 Acres, and Big Pine. On 23 July a woman hiking in Walker Basin west of our camp was attacked and seriously injured by one of those guys. Click on any thumbnail to view image at full size and begin a continuous, five-second interval Slide Show Canon G6 (7 MP) default 3072 x 2304 fine comp, DI 800 x 600 pixels. Viewed best at 1440 x 900 pixels display resolution. Text size may need to be modified for IE browsers. Color profile is iMac - sRGB adds blue, generic RGB is not advised. Images and page coding by Campy, all rights reserved ©2008 mountain high west campy@trailprojects.com