Black Bear

Oh my goodness, I can't believe I didn't say anything about this until now. Laura and I saw a Black Bear last Sunday night. It didn't see or didn't care about us as it walked past about 100 ft away from us. We were sitting at a little fire pit outside of a restaurant at the Northstar ski resort near the north end of Lake Tahoe where we were spending the weekend to celebrate Laura's birthday.

We were just hanginout out AND chatting, and when I happened to glance a little to the right I noticed a bear walking down off the hill beneath the gondola and heading towards the plaza around us. It was kind of surreal because it wasn't something I expected to see, despite the fact that we were definately in his / her house, and not the other way around. So I casually said to Laura "Hey look, a bear." Laura was up and out of her seat in a fraction of a second, and it didn't take much more of that second for me to finally understand that her move was a really good idea.

We walked about 10 feet over to the front door of the restaurant, probably so that we would have something to hide behind if the bear came towards us, which it did not. The poor guy was just looking for something to eat. The bear sauntered across the plaza and up near the windows of another restaurant. People inside that restaurant got out of their chairs and went to the window to watch the bear, almost like a scene from a zoo. Something must have spooked the bear (maybe all the people running up to the window to check him out?), and he turned around and jogged back towards the hill from whence he came.

The whole encounter was over very quickly, and no one was harmed. It was all very cool and strange, and perhaps lucky for those of us who saw the bear and lived to talk about it. It's so sad that a person can go to the forest to get away from the city, but not expect to see wild life like the bear.

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Anyway we had not been to Lake Tahoe in a couple years, so it was a real nice get away for us, even if it was only for a couple days. The choice to stay at Northstar was kind of a whim; Laura had heard about this new "village" of theirs, and we chose to go check it out. It's quaint, lots of little shops and eateries. The 1 bedroom "condo" we stayed in is located such that you could literally ski in and ski out, which would be totally awesome ... it it were winter, there were snow on the ground, and if I was a competent skiier.

Otherwise the area was generally pretty quiet, which was very nice. There were quite a few mountain bicyclists around because Northstar opens up their "slopes" to the downhill bikers in the summer time. Of course I think this looke like a ton of fun. I'd like to do it, by given my recent accident and definate novice status in the off-road bicycling world, I think it'll have to wait until 1) I actually have my own bike and can develop some skills, and 2) I'm not madly trying to get in shape for a rowing race in Boston.

And so it goes on...