Yes, that's right, I have another bear story for you. But this time, it involves my precious little 4-year-old,
Dallin!!! It's not the 14 dogs, 5 armed guides, chase a bear up a tree so you can shoot it with a bow story that I told you last time. So it is not quite as amusing. If I were my dad, I would say, "Bear with me, as I tell you the tale." Here's what happened: Last Monday morning Jason took
Dallin with him to scout for deer up American Fork Canyon. He drove up to Mill Peak and they started hiking about 6:30 am. They saw a doe at the ridge, so they followed it up and heard some crashing through the bushes. When they were almost to the ridge, Jason stopped for a second and heard a strange noise. It sounded like a loud huffing and puffing. "
Hmmm," he thought, "That sounds just like that bear up in Idaho last month." Fortunately, he recognized that there might be danger, so he picked
Dallin up and proceeded with caution for a few steps. The sound continued in the brush, and then suddenly he heard it coming from a tree right by him. He looked up, and practically at eye level was a little baby black bear cub. Now this is not a good situation to be in, especially with a 4-year-old.
Dallin saw the cub and said, "Oh, he's so cute, he looks just Luke!" And although the cub was cute, Jason didn't think this would be a good time to stop and take pictures. Especially because the loud huffing was still coming from the brush where they had just come and they had no choice but to continue past the cub and head out for the ledge. The mountain dropped off on either side and there was basically nowhere to go, so Jason tried to hide
Dallin by a rock and started yelling at the bear and throwing rocks. It was at this point (about 6:45 am) that I received a phone call (who knew Jason's cell phone had service clear up there, thank you Verizon). Imagine out-of-breath whispers here: "We're at the top... We just went by a bear cub... The mother is circling around us... I can still hear her...
Dallin's under a rock... Don't worry, I've got my tripod in case she comes after us... Well, I better go, see ya later..." Well, that wasn't a very comforting conversation. So, you've got
Dallin under a rock and you're going to fight off a bear with a tripod. Great, I guess I'll go back to sleep now. It was an hour until I heard from him again, and you can imagine all the pleasant scenarios that went through my mind. Not to mention the fervent prayers. When he finally did call me back, they were almost to the truck. He had yelled and thrown rocks for about 40 minutes and waited for the bear to circle to the other side of the ledge, then he grabbed
Dallin and started running and made it back to the truck. Miraculously. The whole thing gave Jason quite a scare, especially because he has only seen one other bear in AF canyon his entire life, which crossed the road in front of his truck and was not quite as traumatic, and he's been up there hundreds of times. So of course the time he would find himself in between a mother bear and her cub, he has his 4-year-old with him. Being a rational person, you would think that would discourage him from going up there for at least a week or two. However, two days later he went back up to the exact same spot with a trail camera to mount in a tree and some molasses to pour on the ground to try to get a picture of the bear. And then, on Friday, we actually went camping about a mile downhill after he convinced me it was completely safe and bears never attack people who are camping unless the people try to attract them to the site... Then two nights later, this happens, just a few miles away:
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=1363845Talk about your blood running cold.
This picture is from last summer when we all hiked up there:
I think I see a pair of eyes peering out of the trees behind us, how about you?
We were fortunate this year to get the last 3 tickets for the Friday night Lehi Roundup Rodeo, not to mention we had great front row seats and it was a perfect night. So I was just sitting there thinking how lucky we were when I look down, and there's Luke with some little stranger, getting a little lucky himself!! Talk about a good night for a 1-year-old!! I don't know who this little girl is, but she and Luke hugged and kissed and danced in front of the whole crowd for a good half an hour. People were seriously watching them more than the bull riding. It was the funniest thing ever. When we got in the car later, Dallin told me, "Mom, that was just making me sick watching them hug and kiss. I thought I was going to barf." But, other than being grossed out by the little lovers, Dallin had a pretty good night himself. He's been asking to go to the rodeo ever since we went last year, and he was thrilled to finally be there. And not only that, but he and Luke got to be in the parade for a whole two blocks with their faces painted like tigers with our ward float (thank you, everyone, for not telling them that the parade didn't end at Chad and Shelli's house - it was 97 degrees outside and I don't think I could have pushed that stroller any farther!). Then Dallin insisted on wearing his tiger paint to the rodeo. Jason washed Luke's off before we went, but apparently Luke still had a little bit of tiger in him. The dad of the little girl kept turning to us and saying in a really manly voice, "Must be like father, like son, heh heh." I was like, "ok, now I think I'm going to barf..."
