Becky and the Bear

Another story from the pages of my journal, Walking The Pacific Crest Trail, see Charlie Don’t Backpack.

Jeff Booth and I arrived in Stehekin, hungry! Over the past three days we rationed a single package of Lipton soup. We had lost all our food during the Night of The Attack of The Pocket Gophers.

Stehekin sits at the northern end of Lake Chelan, a length of 55 miles, and the only way in is either by boat, seaplane, or walking in.

Jeff and I had split up from Becky and Chris six days earlier, Chris had become ill and we thought it best for him to see a doctor—we would later learn that he had a hernia. We went to the Post Office to pick up Becky's, Chris', and my last food drop, we were nearing the end of our trek. The postal clerk refused to give us the package since it was addressed to Becky and Jeff didn’t plan a drop for himself, he had planned on finishing the trip in only three more days.

Between the two of us we had a total of two dollars—we tried begging. No luck. We went to the only restaurant in anticipation of buying a candy or two. Jeff picked up a menu and immediately saw a Fruit Salad listed for a mere $1.90. During our last three days of hunger we both had dreamed of fresh fruit and vegetables. As we sat there waiting for our order, in our delirium, we had visions of a large bowl/plate stacked with freshly chopped apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, and maybe even some walnuts. The longer we waited, the longer the list of fruit we envisioned. What a let down when the waitress finally brought out a four inch shallow dish filled more with juice than actual fruit from a can of fruit cocktail. No tip for her!

That evening a ranger was herding all the campers into a single group, a troublesome bear was raiding food packs. The rangers had set up cables suspended across trees for everyone at the campsite to cache their food. Once we suspended our packs we moved to the open area where everyone was to sleep on the ground in a single group. During the night we were all awakened by screaming, the bear was walking amongst the sleeping campers searching for something to eat or smelling the toothpaste on peoples breath. No one slept very well the rest of the night.

The next evening Becky and Chris arrived by boat—FOOD! We immediately picked up our food and over dinner exchanged stories about the last seven days. After dinner we cleaned up, removed the items we wanted out for the night and tried to suspend our packs.

With the new influx of people that day the Purple Point Campground was full. We were forced to tie all four packs on one pulley, the one and a half inch pulley had to hold a combined weight of 250+ pounds. Before we could raise the packs all the way to the top, the rope jumped the groove and jammed. We had brought along a quarter inch rope for a clothesline and emergencies. Becky being the smallest was elected to go up and try to unjam the rope.

I could have reached out and touched the brown bear as it walked past Jeff, Chris, and me, my fear momentarily left me as I was fascinated by its massive size. The golden reddish coat glistened as the muscles beneath the thick coat contracted with each step. The bear then stood on its hind legs and towered over us, it was at least nine feet tall not even counting its reach. As it reached for our backpacks, Becky screamed bloody-murder, she was still suspended in the air with our backpacks.

The packs were just inches out of reach, Becky had to raise her legs, after a while the bear tried a different tactic. Within seconds it climbed one of the trees and tried to reach for the packs, still out of reach. Who ever started that rumor that large bears can’t climb trees knew nothing about bears. Frustrated it climbed down, strolled over to the other tree and climbed it. It repeated this action a few times before moving on. The whole time Becky screamed. Jeff, Chris and I, holding on to the rope that held Becky, shuffled around the bear as it walked past. The rest of the campers were banging on pots trying to scare the bear away. One knucklehead ranted and raved that he had a hatchet back at his campsite and was positive he could kill the bear with one throw to the head. Everyone else told him to be quite, in not so polite terms.

By the time the rangers arrived the bear had moved on. Becky couldn’t budge the packs before the bear appeared, but now with her adrenaline rushing she easily fixed the jammed rope.