|
Post by Miss Lacy on Jul 25, 2018 22:28:05 GMT -5
Mr. Lacy and I went tent camping last week at Scott Flats Lake in northern California-- the middle of BEAR COUNTRY. There is a reason why the California state flag features the image of a bear-- there are ALOT of bears in California. A short 1-1/2 hour drive on I80W and Hwy20 from Reno and we were at our campsite in northern California, 10 miles east of the historic gold-mining towns of Nevada City and Grass Valley, CA. Scott Flats Lake is a LARGE man-made reservoir-- very clear and deep--and a GREAT water relief from the 100 degree temps plaguing us in Reno since the middle of June. Our campsite was right on the water edge. After setting up our tent and blowing up the mattress, we jumped in the lake to cool off, and then cooked BBQ chicken. After another refreshing swim, a few cocktails on the beach, and an unbelievably brilliant-bright star-watching experience, we built a HUGE camp fire that consumed two bundles of wood before heading to bed around midnight. Even after a full day of traveling and all the spectacular events that happened after we arrived, Mr. Lacy and I were not too tired to continue our "hot streak" once we settled into the tent. HOWEVER-- less than 15 minutes later, even though I was 'fully engaged" with Mr. Lacy, I couldn't help but become distinctly aware that there was a third-party, heavy-breathing occurring within close proximity to our tent. ME: Shhhhh!!!!!! MR LACY: Wha-- ME: Shhhhh!!!!!!! We both silently listen-- in a frozen position (me on top of him)-- as a heavy-breathing animal walks DIRECTLY BEHIND OUR TENT. (to be continued)
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2018 23:05:56 GMT -5
Thats figgin awesome. I'm pretty sure theres more of the story because you survived to tell it. I just sold forty acres right out of Redding at lake shasta. Were you close?
Tell us more of the story.
|
|
|
Post by Doc on Jul 26, 2018 5:47:11 GMT -5
Talk about getting caught with your pants down. Lol
Beautiful picture and scenery there.
I wouldn't go out into bear country without a gun though.
At the very least I'd imagine you had bear spray?
|
|
|
Post by Miss Lacy on Jul 26, 2018 12:03:03 GMT -5
Several tense minutes pass before the heaving-breathing animal finally wanders off. MR LACY: It had to be the neighbor's dog. ME: You think so? MR LACY: Yeah. I'm pretty sure. ME: Ok. Soooooo Where were we...? The next morning, our camp neighbors -- a lovely single mom, her two young girls and black lab, Ginger-- are packing up their campsite. Even though they were to suppose to be staying another night. HER: We are leaving!!! Did you hear that bear last night? ME: That was a bear??!! We thought it was your dog. HER: No. It was a big black bear. Come look at the tracks. I follow her over to the dirt path between our campsites-- and sure enough, right there, a mere three feet from the back of our tent is a line of big bear tracks. OMG! HER: The bear destroyed their campsite. (She points to the RV across the road-- 20 feet away). I can't do this! We are leaving. ME: I'm sorry to hear that. Well... have a safe trip home. I admit I was a little freaked out, knowing that we were nearly bear-food the night before, but we're tough and decided to stick it out. That was a mistake.
|
|
|
Post by Blue Meanie on Jul 26, 2018 13:04:59 GMT -5
You cray cray.
|
|
|
Post by Jeppers on Jul 26, 2018 13:23:16 GMT -5
Umm that sounds like a movie to me. haha
"Fully engaged."
Kinda reminds me of hitching a trailer to the truck. haha
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2018 13:50:02 GMT -5
I'm on the edge of my seat waiting.
|
|
|
Post by Miss Lacy on Jul 26, 2018 23:43:51 GMT -5
WHERE'S MY COFFEE!!! Our campsite didn't have electric. But, we've encountered this obstacle to our morning coffee fixation before and usually found a solution by utilizing the bathroom/shower electric, plugging in our auto-drip to the outlet provided for-- I don't know, a teenager's hair dryer or something equally unnecessary??-- waiting the 10 minutes for the coffee to brew, and then pouring the hot java into a thermos. The coffee hike to the bathrooms is WAY UP a hill-- the entire campground sits on the side of a mountain, so everything from our lakeside campsite is WAAAAY up hill. I send Mr. Lacy on the coffee run. Ten minutes later, he returns--- sans hot coffee. MR. LACY: None of the electrical outlets work. ME: WHAT???!!! ? I have a wine-hangover. And I can already feel the beginnings of a coffee-deprived headache coming on. ROAD TRIP!! We jump in the car and head to Nevada City. That is a BUST-- not even a gas station to speak of. Really!! !!! We continue south on HWY 20 to Grass Valley-- and at the first exit we see a welcome sight. MCDONALDS!!! Four $1 large coffees and two Egg McMuffins later, we head over to the ACE Hardware next door. I had two items on my camping list that we didn't bring with us--- a flashlight (blame Mr. Lacy for that) and flotation devices. After our close encounter with the bear the night before, we spent a long while in the flashlight aisle, eventually purchasing a near SEARCH-LIGHT quality spotlight along with two cheap 36" round floaty tubes. By the time we arrive back at our campsite, the lovely young mom and her daughters are already cleaned-out and gone. We spend a majority of the day in the lake floating in our newly-purchased inner tubes. Even though my fingers are winkling, I am loathe to get out--- and only do so, reluctantly, for a light sandwich/salad lunch late in the afternoon. All day, I find myself regularly looking over at Mr. Lacy and laughing--- as we float in the cool mountain-clear water, "I could do this all day-- every day." The sun is really low in the sky--finally forcing us to abandon the water and settle into our camp for the night. We picked up two more bundles of wood on our trip to Grass Valley and before the full sunset, I have a roaring campfire and corn-on-the-cob roasting for dinner (along with reheated BBQ chicken from the night before). As the stars come out and the darkness creeps in, I find myself focused on maintaining our roaring camp fire-- constantly tending/shifting and feeding the blazing flames. The blue-green inferno I create in the fire pit is memorizing-- probably some of my best campfire work. I don't admit to Mr. Lacy that my large fire-bug focus has anything to do with our close encounter with the bear the previous night--- BUT, I know that my inferno camp fire-fixation has EVERYTHING to do with that roaming bear. One hundred and fifty years ago, the gold-rush struck in California-- and THIS BEAR COUNTRY AREA was the epicenter of that population explosion. I've also watched enough westerns (love Clint's spaghetti westerns, btw) and other historical dramas (does Grizzly Adams also count?) to know that the only way to keep the "critters" away at night, out on the "range," was to build a big roaring camp fire. I didn't know if it would work--- I'm from Wisconsin, where we might encounter an aggressive raccoon once in a while, so I've only seen it done in movies. But, I figured a big-ass roaring campfire couldn't hurt. I was sooooo right.
|
|
|
Post by Blue Meanie on Jul 27, 2018 14:26:08 GMT -5
Once upon a time in a quadrant far far away...
a young princess sans buns (hair) teaches us the humor of the non sequitur, miss direction and (my favorite) the sparkling flow of the run on sentence.
Kudos.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2018 17:10:30 GMT -5
Two questions. 1)You don't know how to make coffee on a camping stove or fire? 2)Did you pee in the lake? haha couldn't resist, the pool man in me ya know.
|
|
|
Post by Doc on Jul 27, 2018 17:15:24 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Blue Meanie on Jul 28, 2018 6:48:23 GMT -5
Once upon a time in a quadrant far far away... a young princess sans buns (hair) teaches us the humor of the non sequitur, miss direction and (my favorite) the sparkling flow of the run on sentence. Kudos. I hope you didn’t take this the wrong way. Backhanded compliments are my specialty. It is very entertaining. Please do continue. Sorry if i offended.
|
|
|
Post by Miss Lacy on Jul 28, 2018 10:19:34 GMT -5
Once upon a time in a quadrant far far away... a young princess sans buns (hair) teaches us the humor of the non sequitur, miss direction and (my favorite) the sparkling flow of the run on sentence. Kudos.
|
|
|
Post by Miss Lacy on Jul 28, 2018 10:25:27 GMT -5
Two questions. 1)You don't know how to make coffee on a camping stove or fire? 2)Did you pee in the lake? haha couldn't resist, the pool man in me ya know. 1) Yes, I do. But we didn't bring the camp stove this time-- so also left the camp coffee pot. I was nervous about having food-stuff out, including coffee because this campground doesn't have bear lockers (I have no idea why not-- it is certainly obvious that they need them. ) We never even took the cooler out of the car and made sure to pack EVERYTHING back into the car at night. 2) Always. Did I mention the trip up the mountain to the bathroom was really steep?
|
|
|
Post by Miss Lacy on Jul 28, 2018 10:28:16 GMT -5
Let me wake up and get some coffee in me and I'll be back to finish the tale. As they say in Jamaica-- soon come.
|
|