It's a BEAR!!!!!

Remember that kid's song, "I'm going on a bear hunt?" You'd go through the gate, woods, river, etc., until you went into the dark cave and saw the big green eyes, fuzzy tail, and realized it was a bear? (Thanks to Jean Feldman we have all the actions down pat.) If you didn't know better, you'd realize that it sounded like a Risk Family Adventure. (Notice the caps--I think that is a regular title now.) We had a bear hunt!

We crashed the Stephenson's camping trip--although we had permission--to the Sequoia National Park. Big trees, big adventures, so of course the Risk's had to come! Getting ready for it took more time than we were actually out there doing it. DJ prepped the pop-up trailer, then I came in with the shopping, laundry, etc. After the Sam's Club and Wal-Mart runs, we realized we could have eaten out for around the same price. But then I wouldn't have spent hours every day cooking over a Coleman stove. Hmmm. I think I see a problem in the reasoning in this.

We pulled into camp late Sunday night. Like 10 p.m. late. Jeff and Dad were good enough to help us set up the trailer so we could get some shut eye. It was chilly out, but with the electric blankets --I'm not stupid!--we stayed toasty warm.

The next day we headed up to the park--and it was beautiful! I love the sequoias, and I loved that the park was virtually deserted. On one of our walks--it really didn't count as a hike--we saw four deer including a five-point buck. The sequoias are so large that there is virtually no undergrowth. Everyone but Mom and I hiked up a massive boulder (1000-2000 foot drop off) called Moro Rock. After about 30 steps, I freaked, couldn't move, and headed back down the hill. My children ran up. Yes, ran. DJ was having people yell up the trail to stop her, but they couldn't yell fast enough to get ahead of her. I'm glad I didn't know that at the time.

We had a drizzle that evening, and it made everything misty. Jeff, Janae, and kids, plus Mom, had spent two days in the park, and stayed at the RV park to do around camp things, but we convinced Dad to come back up with us on Tuesday. Had a great time, but we could feel the storm front moving in. My blood's thin from almost 6 years in the desert, and the feeling of snow was enough to make me want to head back down the mountain. On the way down, we came around a blind corner, and a black bear was sitting on the road. We screeched to a halt and DJ and Dad bolted from the car for pictures. The bear ambled off the road and into the woods. We continued down the hill; we had heard that bears were in a picnic area close to the bottom of the hill, so we pulled off, and I screamed--"There's bears there!" Again, the car was thrown into park, and EVERYONE jumped out of the car. There was a mama bear and cub munching on acorns in the meadow. DJ and kids edged closer and closer to the bear, while I hung onto Josh and hollered. Finally, we climbed back in the car and worked on getting DJ in, especially after the cub climbed the tree and DJ continued to take pictures of the Mom and the cub. We made it, were safe, and had our bear hunt.

Thanks to Dad--with his awesome camera and pictures--he'll send a CD of the pictures and we'll add some to the blog.