more critter talk ~ grey fox, camping, & bear

[Guest guest]

, " Tom " <antipreophogistiii>

wrote:

> I definitely feel that way. Some people are puzzled about me moving

> out of that place near downtown Ashland to my tent up in the

> woodlands, especially this time of year, and in part it is this

> being in the flow of natural life that I missed....

 

~ How wonderful. Do you get cold up there in the

mornings? Are you planning to stay there through

the winter?

 

 

> Manzanitas are definitely like what their name means: Little apples.

(A picture of one variety, more

> like what's around Shasta:

> http://www.bahiker.com/pictures/eastbay/losvaqueros/071700/websize/07

> 6manberries.jpg) Mostly, they taste

> like sweetened iced tea with lemon, though last year they got more

> fully ripe and they had a taste that was very apple like.

 

 

~ That is a great picture. i have seen these before.

i just never knew they were edible. Thanks for sharing

the info.

 

 

> I think it was a false spring last winter that got all the manzanita

> trees to blossom early, but then there was a wind storm that

> stripped off most of them. We are also just getting more bears, so

> they may be just cleaning the trees off that much quicker. I'm also

> wondering if they sprayed up there out of fear of west nile

> mosquitoes, but getting the pollinators in the same swoop.

 

 

~ Oh how i do hope it wasn't due to spraying!

 

 

> This is already happening here. Last year, from what I could piece

> together from different sources, a momma bear was killed because she

> was standing her ground with people. It's

> clear to me that bears are very sophisticated animals with a

> culture...

 

 

~ That happened here a few years back. The mom

bear was doing the garbage thing and then in fear

climbed up a neighbor's tree. We saw a bunch of

cars and people across the street all looking up, so

my son went out to see what was going on. Now if

everyone had just left that poor bear alone, she

would have eventually climbed down and wandered

away. Instead they had some animal control folks

tranq gun her and she fell quite a long way to the

ground. She was taken to Wildlife Images, but from

what i was told by staff there, she had to be put to

sleep.

They are amazing creatures; so intelligent, and i

agree with your thoughts on their culture.

 

 

> Last night, I was up towards my campsite. I happened to have my

> laptop with me, so I stopped at a spot to see if I might be able to

> find a wifi hotspot there (two networks showed up, but I wasn't able

> to connect to them). While sitting there, a fox barked east of me

> some ways off. Before I knew it, a fox barked to my more immediate

> west, giving me a startle. I was blinded by the screen glow, so I

> couldn't see it, but I held my hand out and spoke welcomingly. The

> fox was satisfied, apparently, and went off. A little later, I was

> going up to my site. I clap to let mainly the bears know I'm coming

> through to avoid close encounters. I ended up startling a bear cub

> who was up an old apple tree and came down with a crash, startling

> me. It ran off across the field away from me - I could see it in the

> moonlight. I looked warily around for a mom, but I didn't see any

> sign of one. Otherwise, I got up to my site just fine, and it was

> mostly quiet until some bird landed on my tent and called around

> this morning....

 

~ Great stories about your animal encounters!

i almost hit two grey foxes when i was driving home

last night. i saw the first one, so i was slowed and

let him pass in front of us. i had just stepped back

down on the gas, and another dashed out of the bushes;

thank goodness my daughter saw it and yelled to me

so i could stop in time. Such small, swift, and sleek

creatures. Again the intelligence just exudes from them!

Now i think i would have been scared had i been in your

shoes in regards to your bear encounter. i think you are

a very brave soul! *lol*

 

 

> > A sacred being cannot be anticipated;

> > it must be encountered.

> > ~ W. H. Auden, 'The Dryer's Hand'

>

> Nice quote...

> Peace and love,

> Tom

 

 

~ i love this quote, too. Jenni was good enough to

email me to tell me that i had mispelled the source.

It is from 'The Dyer's Hand', not dryer's.

Thanks, Jenni!

 

~ pt ~

 

The purpose of culture is to enhance and intensify

one's vision of that synthesis of truth and beauty

which is the highest and deepest reality.

~ John Cowper Powys, 'The Meaning of Culture'

[Guest guest]

, " ~ PT ~ "

<patchouli_troll> wrote:

> Do you get cold up there in the mornings? Are you planning to stay

there through the winter?

 

It hasn't been that cold yet. We haven't even had our first frost

yet. This morning, in fact, there was a warm wind, and now people

are out in shorts and tees. I do plan to stay up there until March,

and then I will see where I'm at with things. There are a few

techniques I've learned to deal with the cold. One, it's an

advantage to have a basically clean diet, like a vegan whole foods

diet. That allows better circulation and healthy metabolism. With

extra fats sources - like nuts, avocados, and soy-based ice creams -

you can keep up a metabolism to generate heat to push out moisture

through the layers - something I learned from looking at a field

mouse's nest when I was helping a friend with his garden up near

Mount Tahoma (Mount Rainier) and we pulled up a board that my friend

had put down to suppress weeds uncovering her nest. Two, I spend

some focus on keeping my bedding dry. I'll even delay going up to my

site if it's raining, in order to be able to arrive at my tent

relatively dry (I produce lots of drying heat going up). There was

only once last winter when I had to bring my stuff down to dry it

off at the laundry mat, and that was because I had to move my site

and I didn't have my new site entirely set up right yet when some

wet weather came in. There was one other time where it rained all

night - like 14+ hours straight - and I spent that night in the

laundry mat, but mostly I haven't had to wait out the rain for more

than an hour or two. When it freezes, things dry out, and the

bedding insulates better, and those can be some of the most

comfortable nights during the winter....

 

> ~ That is a great picture. i have seen these before.

> i just never knew they were edible. Thanks for sharing

> the info.

 

The manzanitas are one of the most nurturing plants. They feed just

about everybody, including hummingbirds and bees when they flower.

That peely red paper thin bark holds a treatment for poison oak

exposure - poison oak also growing well where manzanitas grow well.

Low laying manzanitas create an environment where little oaks, pines

and firs can get their start shielded from browsers and drying sun,

while the manzanita leaves can pull dew out of moist air and water

the young trees. The older trees support lichens, which are

important nitrogen fixers. The wood is nontoxic when burned, so it's

great for cooking. And the wood is tight grained, which makes it

great for carving - there is a woman closer to you than here who

makes the most beautiful spoons out of manzanita wood....

 

> Now if everyone had just left that poor bear alone, she

> would have eventually climbed down and wandered

> away.

 

Poor bear. She definitely would have taken off if she saw the chance

to....

 

> Now i think i would have been scared had i been in your

> shoes in regards to your bear encounter. i think you are

> a very brave soul! *lol*

 

Ok, ok. I have to tell you this story. Two years ago, the Monday

after the full moon in November 2003, I encountered a momma bear on

the trail up to what was then my campsite. I had just come from a

green party meeting and thoughts were spinning in my head, and I

wasn't following my usual protocol of tapping these sticks together

while going up the trail. I then heard some big animal off the trail

to my immediate left just a few feet. Next I heard a snort - like a

dog snort, only this was like a really big dog's snort - a little

further ahead of me, but still to my left off the trail. About 20-30

feet ahead of me, a large momma bear came out on the trail, and she

just stood there looking sideways at me down the hill, and I get a

good look at her because the nearly full moon is behind me to my

left and she's in the moonlight. Her cub was behind her mostly in

her moonshadow. I was both in awe and in fear for my life. I banged

my sticks over my head and spoke to her with both that awe and that

fear in my voice, telling her how beautiful she was, but also how I

didn't want any problems. We had this face off for a couple of

minutes, and then she moved up the trail.

 

I then had to decide what to do. My campsite was up that trail. I

thought about whether I had an option back in town for that night,

and I couldn't think of one. So after about a minute, I continued up

that trail behind the momma bear and her cub. I saw them once more

turning off the trail to the right (towards town) where I turn off

the trail to the left to go to my site, but they were much farther

ahead of me than that earlier few minutes.

 

This was the first time clearly seeing a bear in the wild since I

was 4 years old in Yelm, Washington. My neighbor friend, Jeff

McCloud was over at my house and we were playing in the yard. He

notices the bear first, over at his house across the field, and the

bear is standing on the ground reaching up into this apple tree.

Jeff and I go into my house to tell my mom, but by the time we get

her out to see, the bear is gone.

 

Jeff's mom was Janet McCloud, a Native American activist whose

activism lead to the famous Bolt decision in the 70s where the

Native American tribes of the 1855 Medicine Creek treaty regained

their fishing rights. I remember both taxi cabs and police cars

frequenting their house, and in my child's mind I imagined them to

be the same car that they just changed around depending on what they

were going to do with it.

 

Two weeks after my encounter with that momma bear, the Friday after

Thanksgiving, I found Janet McCloud's obituary in the Oregonian. She

had died earlier that week. The timing of it all felt like a

message. And I've had a few encounters with bears since then. Each

time it feels like a reminder.....

Peace and love,

Tom