Bear experiences on our ranch have been far and few between. My first was with Dad and Mom years ago before cell phones and digital cameras. My second bear experience was last week.
Bear Experience #1
Because of my teaching career, I spent lots of summer time in Colorado on the ranch with Mom and Dad. This had to be in the late 80s and early 90s.
As we were driving down the Scotty trail into our canyon one morning, Dad had just said, “This used to bear country.”
We pulled up beside the well there and checked it as we always did. After crossing the creek bed, we looked up, and there was a brown bear. Speechless, we stopped, grabbed the binoculars and watched this sizable brown bear run off.
“Wow! Dad, a bear, here in the canyon, on our ranch!” I marveled at the site. Mom and I both squeaked now that the bear had run off. This was my first sighting!
We had planned to camp out that evening not too far from the sighting of the bear, so Dad grabbed a gun to have it if the bear bothered us.
What a Joyful Evening We Had!
Mom cooked hamburgers out on an open fire while Dad and I set up our three-man tent. We rolled out our sleeping bags inside—the ten overflowed with sleeping bags! We played Rummy and laughed a lot. Also, we had brought a cassette player and had music blasting. My ten-pound miniature poodle, Windy, ran around, but I had to put him on a chain so he didn’t run off and explore too far away.
When it became time to go to bed, what an exercise that was! To manage the size of the tent, we filed inside in order of who needed to get outside first—that was Dad to pee! Windy bounced around inside enjoying us all being together. After much laughter and shifting in our bed rolls, we finally thought it was time to say good night.
“The gun is in the pickup!” Dad announced, “should I go get it?”
Dad kept saying, “What if the bear gets the gun?” Then we burst out laughing.
After much discussion and deliberation and laughter, we decided we were safe. We had no nighttime visitation of the bear, and we all slept soundly. For years, that was my only bear story!
Bear Experience #2
Last Tuesday, I didn’t go with my brother to the ranch because I wanted to clean out my garage. Because of recovering from the shingles in 2022 and 2023 and the dog attack in 2024, I hadn’t done any work in the garage for three years and it was a mess.
When my brother came in for lunch, he said he only saw turkeys and his buddy. I let that hint slip by and after lunch, he said he saw a bear.
“Where? What color? Oh, my God! I didn’t go and you saw a bear!” I exclaimed, “I am so jealous!” Because we have game cameras set up around the ranch, I have seen a variety of bear colors: brown, black and cinnamon.
“Brown bear,” he replied. So, that energized me for the next day.
So, the next day, I went out to the ranch with my brother, armed with my camera and an extra battery, like I always did. Right outside of Branson, a nice size buck antelope stood close to the road, so I grabbed my camera to take a picture. The battery was dead! No, worry! I had my spare. After putting it into my camera, the red light came on, saying, “Dead battery!
My brother and I looked at each other, and he said, “That means we will see wildlife today.”
I Felt Like an Idiot!
Never have I done that before! In the past, I was hypervigilant on making sure my batteries were charged. I’m going to blame this on the gabapentin I’m still taking for the nerve damage to my foot and leg. We’ve decreased the dosage, but I’m still taking 300 mgs.
As, we drove down the Harper Trail, we worked our way to the Scotty well. We arrived across the creek from the well. I turned and looked at the stock tank and I saw something in the tank.
I exclaimed to my brother, “There’s a bear in the tank.” He grabbed his binoculars and agreed.
So, we sat and watched for 20-30 minutes laughing at his antics. This cinnamon colored bear splashed and moved around. At one point, we feared for the six goldfish my niece put in there a couple years ago because it looked like he was hunting and eating something.
What a joyous time that was to see that bear thoroughly enjoying the wetness of the water that cooled him down and the playfulness of his attitude. After a while, he crawled out of the tank and he roamed around the tank. At one point, he dug up an ant hill close to the tank.
At no time was he aware we were there! Bears’ eyesight isn’t that good—their sense of smell and hearing are. We decided to drive closer and see when he would hear us. When we did cross the creek bed, he ran off.
Over by the stock tank, we investigated his attack on the anthill. He demolished it. Also, we looked in the tank for the fish. With all his movement, he had stirred up the tank so much, we couldn’t find any of the fish. A couple days later, we counted all the six large goldfish and about twelve smaller ones.
A Lesson from My Bear Experience
I always know there’s a lesson in something like this. Sometimes, I need to let go of taking pictures and just be present in the moment—and enjoy that moment for what it is! I will never forget sitting next to my brother and the spirited conversation we had about the amazing sight of a bear “bathing” (really cooling off) in our stock tank.
Finally,
I love the wildlife experiences I’ve had on our ranch, but this week’s bear experience tops the list. Do you have any wildlife experiences, bear experiences? If so, share them!
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