Another somewhat frightening but also funny story from my youth was the first time I had ever encountered bears. On a camp trip in the King’s Canyon national forest, at about age 10, my dad decided to play a little “trick” on me. Keep in mind, at this time in my life I was not aware that there were bears in the mountains of northern California. It just wasn’t something that crossed my mind, and my dad (conveniently) did not tell me (or my sister or brother) that bears were in the area. Anyways, this one night after dinner we were all getting ready for bed. Just as I was about to lay down to sleep, dad came with his flashlight and called me out of my tent. He said something to the effect of, “Aaron, come over here now. I wanna show you something. Be quiet now and come look.” I was a bit frustrated since on many occasions in the past, when dad called me to do something like this it almost always turned out to be some chore, like “Take the trash out!” Begrudgingly, I got up, put my pants and shoes on, and followed him out of the tent, through the campsite and toward the car. At that time, dad owned a white VW Rabbit with a Sears X-Cargo storage box on top. Just as he approached the side of the car, with me just behind him but on the other side of the car, he turned his flashlight off and whispered, “Shhhhh. Do you hear that?” It was pitch-black dark outside. I couldn’t see anything! But, what I could hear was some kind of wrestling noises coming from just down the road at the dumpsters. At first I thought, “Dad…Really? You brought me out here to listen to someone dump their trash?! You suck! I’m going back to bed!” but just as I was about to turn and walk away, my sister (who I didn’t know was there) whispered, “Shhhh! It’s bears!”
I froze. And just like that, dad flipped on his flashlight, shining directly across the short road and lighting up the 3 black bears who were busy rummaging through the dumpsters and trash bins just 50 feet away. Immediately, my heart started racing as one of the bears stopped what it was doing, stood up on it’s hind legs, and began staring in our direction. As I watched this happen (in what almost seemed like slow motion), another one of the bears finished it’s trash digging and also began looking in our direction, all while beginning to walk toward us! “Stop dad! Stop! Turn the light out! Turn the light out!” Dad just chuckled as my fear grew to level 10. “Quick! Get in the car! Get in the car!” I said, as I began frantically pulling on the passenger’s side handle. It was locked! “It’s locked! Hurry!” I shouted. “Dad! Hurry!” Dad took what seemed like an eternity to pull the keys out of his pocket. Finally he unlocked his door, got in, and unlocked my side. I jumped in and locked the door faster than greased lightening.
What happened next was equally as scary. Dad turned on the headlights! “No! no! no! Turn them off!” I shouted, as I reached over in an attempt to turn them off myself. Dad lightly brushed my hand to the side. “Stop it now. Hold on now. Just watch.”, he said. I watched in horror as what I thought for sure was our coming doom. All 3 bears stopped what they were doing, looked in our direction, and then began walking toward us! My heart was racing a million miles an hour. I was certain the bears would jump up on the hood, smash the windshield and eat us, or (even worse!) find their way to my sister and brother’s tent and eat them, while I listen in terror with no ability to do anything about it! It was then that I got immediately angry. “DAD! TURN THE LIGHTS OFF! THEY ARE GOING TO COME OVER HERE! AMBER AND ABE OUR IN THEIR TENTS!!!” He didn’t say anything. Instead, he just gave a small chuckle and turned out the lights. “What do we do now?”, I said in a fearful tone. “Just wait a minute.” he said.
As our eyes adjusted to the moonlight overhead, I saw the bears begin to lose interest, slowly making their way back into the forest and out of sight. We waited about 5-10 minutes and then dad got out of the car. “Everything will be alright”, he said. “Don’t worry. They won’t hurt us.”, he said. “How do you know that??”, I asked in a very concerned tone. “Just go to bed. I’ll watch out. You’ll be fine.” I ran back to the tent where my brother and I were staying, zipped the zipper door shut as quickly as I could, and got into my sleeping bag. Looking over, I noticed that my brother had slept through the whole thing!
And that’s the story of the scary bears. The funny part is, dad knew that California black bears are generally not dangerous to humans. He just allowed me to believe it to get a good laugh. What a prankster!
