Fur and Feathers Journal 2024, Entry No. Two

Entry No. Two

Danger, Danger Everywhere

 

 

 

I hear voices.

 

 

Or, I think I hear voices,

 

I’m burrowed so deeply into my flannel-lined sleeping bag that I’m not sure.  I find the flap and lift slightly.   I can see that dawn is newborn but still quite young.  With the flap open just a couple inches, I hear voices again.  

  

Well, one voice.   

 

I fight my way out of the bag and go to the tent door, unzip it, and see Karl standing outside. (Remember, I went to bed fully dressed.)  It’s Karl’s self-appointed duty to get up before everyone else in camp and start the coffee.

 

Karl explains that he’d just run into a bear near the outhouse, which is a winding walk into the forest and about 60 feet beyond the electric fence.  He says they surprised each other and the bear stood up to get a better look at him before they each went in opposite directions.    Though, says Karl, the bear walked past Eddie’s tent.  

 

He  warns us to keep our eyes open when we visit the open-air facility in the dense forest.

 

I zipped the flap closed and wake Alicia to tell her.   Then, I'm  back to my toasty-warm bed until the sun comes up and the temperature is more amenable to human survival.   There's been a series of cold storms the past few days, but the winds that tried to scour us from the earth have died down and the sky is clear.

 

Our camp is enclosed with an electric fence—two bands of white tape hooked to a battery device. The tape is unhooked during the daytime and armed at night.   

 

Bears or no, the pathway to the outhouse presents a threat.   There are blueberry bushes and Devil’s Club bushes interspersed among the huge spruce trees everywhere you look.   The blueberries attract bears and the Devil’s Club lie in wait for the unsuspecting passer-by, whence they stab you with their  horrid, hooked thorns that can cause painful punctures and skin irritation.   

I still have a scar on one hand where a thorn punctured me.

Gillifoto photo.

 

Even the huge leaves are a menace.   No wonder the plant is called Oplopanax horridus.  The stems have a multitude of thorns and even the leaves have them.

The top of the leaf.

The bottom of the leaf.

 

In the fall, Devil’s Club blooms with a cone of bright red berries.   Very striking against the rich green leaves, but the berries are toxic to humans.   Bears and moose, however, love the berries.

 

 

It’s still cold later at breakfast.   I’m working my way through a huge bowl of oatmeal with dried apricots and pecans.   It’s about four times more than I usually eat and I do what I can so I don’t insult Ronnie the Chef.

 

Alicia asks for buttered toast.  The butter is too cold to spread so the guys come to her rescue with a propane torch.   We instantly deem the bread  “Blowtorch Toast”   

Alicia's Blowtorch Toast.

Just for that, I ask for a slice of Blowtorch Toast so I can get better pix, not that I need more to eat.

And he didn't burn the paper towel!

Eddie says he thought he’d heard a bear right next to his tent during the night.  He’s been alert to every sound.   “I punched the side of the tent and yelled,” he said.  Most likely, that’s the bear Karl saw walk towards Eddie’s tent.

L-R:   Karl, Alicia, Eddie, me, Ronnie.  Karl's photo

 

Then we sit around camp, get to know our co-hosts, have serious and civil discussions about current topics, swap stories, and relax while Karl goes on the lookout for animals.  He grabs his book, carries a folding chair out to the gravel bar that appears at low tide, and settles in to wait and watch.

 

And he spots critters!