I have yet to get eaten by a bear, but I will blog about it immediately if it happens. A few nights ago, I woke up yelling because I was certain that something-a bear, a rabid raccoon, a frisky skunk-had me by the legs. I am not using my tent right now, just my rainfly and footprint, which leaves plenty of room for the beasties to get in.
My first thought: “Great. I’ve been eating summer sausage in my sleeping bag. Now I smell especially tasty.”
I probably wouldn’t have been so scared if I hadn’t been told that there is a bear that “roams those parts.” I like using that phrase because it helps me picture a cowboy bear. At any rate, I had a hard time going to sleep because the dream felt so real.
The caretaker at Garfield Ridge Shelter goes by Matt, Stinky, or Carebear and he made me bacon.
So a few nights later when woke up with a sharp pain in my finger, I thought I had been dreaming again. The blood on my finger said otherwise. Turns out that while staying at a shelter, I had been bitten by a vole. A vole is kind of like the love child of a mouse and a mole. Somehow, I had angered one and its tiny act of vengeance was evident in the tiny wound on my hand.The next day, some of the other hikers told the caretaker that I had been bitten by a vole and, when I woke up, he had made me a big pan of bacon. I’m assuming that it was made from the family members of the vole that attacked me.
Later that night, a Gray Jay actually came into the shelter and tried to take my food. I heard its wings flapping and dove on my bag. So, as it turns out, I am the opposite of Snow White. She has the animals of the forest on her side, but it appears that all the beasties are against me.
I will be entering bear country pretty soon, and that means that my whole, “I’m tired. I’ll just sleep with my food in my tent because I’m too tired to hang it,” bit won’t work. On the upside, seeing a bear somewhere other than behind the Dunkin’ Donuts in Gorham, would be nice. And experiencing real animals and not the ones I dream up at night would probably be a good thing for my sanity.
Related posts:
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
HAHA! Vole bacon!
Little bastard deserves it!