Photo by Harlan Kredit

Beware! Bear! Continued,

Upon further inspection, I could not believe my eyes! It was a big impression in the river mud. I followed the paw print, leading me to another, and another, and another! Then, voila! The bear den! It was right there. No more than 100 yards from our tent. We had camped right near the bear den! No wonder we couldn't see where the bear went.

I made myself scarce, got the attention of Windy, and motioned for her to come to me. I pointed toward the den. She knew right away what I had found. We chuckled and went to break down our camp. “My boyfriend is going to be so mad at you when I tell him about this!” she professed, wagging her head while snickering.

“What? Why is this my fault?”

“Because stuff like this doesn't happen to me when I'm not around you. And he would totally know it wasn't my idea to camp here after seeing a bear!”

“But it was your idea,” I chattered, “and I agreed.”

“Yeah. But he'll still blame you,” she smiled victoriously.

We had one more night to camp. Finding shelter well before dark, we pitched our tent on a mountain ledge. One step too far to the left and off we would go. That night, before I made that last step Windy did the impossible. She woke in her sleep. “Don't step left,” she said with a yawn.

I was just about to do that. I didn't admit it right there. “Lightning is coming from over the mountains. There's going to be a storm,” I said in observation.

“How far away is it?”

How could I know for sure? “About three hours.”

Finding the ability to sleep for three more hours, it was a thunder crash waking us that day. Without much of a word, once it struck we were up. In five minutes the tent was down and we were sitting in the car just as the rain came.

“Now what do you want to do?” she asked, still sleepy from the events of the trip.

“Go home,” I sighed, satisfied with all we had seen and done.