Lake Shasta camping and The Bears

 September 2-3

We went camping with our friends the Riddle's last month.  The water level was really low, so our usual boat-in camp ground was too much of a hike to get to, especially with a baby. We stayed at a campground off the freeway a little ways.

 This cute "little" chubby baby got to come with us.  She is so fun to squeeze!!

 Noah found this log past our camp site that he spent a lot of time on. He also hiked up and down that hill about 20 times a day.  Each time he came back up with new "treasures"/junk (things people have lost off their boats and sank to the bottom of the lake).

 Flimsy karate kid pose.

 Aubrey made us really good tin foil dinners. We roasted marshmallows and after the kids went to bed, the grown ups made campfire eclairs (wrap a crescent roll around a stick, roast it, then fill with pudding and top with chocolate icing).  They were delicious!!!

After we enjoyed the eclairs, we headed off to bed.  We put Nala in the back of the car to sleep.  This is where the bear story I mentioned in the last post comes in.  I actually mentioned to Gavin there must not be any bears in the area, because there were no bear bins to put our food in.   We put most of the food in our boat and cleaned off the table pretty well, but left the cooler out and a few odds and ends.  There were regular tin garbage cans for our garbage right by our campsite. 

About an hour after we went to our tents, I heard a loud bang, and new that something was in our garbage can. I assumed it was a raccoon and just laid in bed listening to it dig in the garbage can.  I nudged Adam and told him there was something in our garbage can.  He said it was probably a raccoon, listened for awhile and then rolled over.  A few minutes later I heard something walking by our tent and by the table.  Then the camp host came over and said, "Sorry to bother you guys, but there are some bears in our campground going thru the garbage cans, and they just took off behind your tents down by the lake.  Make sure you don't have any food in there."   What the crap!!  Adam asked Gavin if he heard the camp host, and he said that he had just taken some of the food to their car (which was across the street). He was the one by the table getting things put away. Aubrey made him get up and take the food to their car.  Adam told him he was crazy, and that he would never have walked alone across the street with bears walking around.  :) I could not sleep at all, and of course I needed to go to the bathroom, but I was NOT getting out of the tent with bears.  About 30 minutes later the bears were back.  This time I stood up in the tent and could see the baby bear going thru the garbage cans.  All the while Nala (who barks at anything and everyone that comes within a hundred feet of our house) didn't even wake up when the bear was 5 feet from the car!! I heard them behind our tent a couple times.  Finally, after I didn't hear any noise for awhile, I nudged Adam (who had fallen asleep) and told him I couldn't hold it anymore.  I was scared to death, but couldn't sleep if I didn't go.  The whole night I was praying that we would be alright, and the stories of bear attacks kept racing thru my brain.  A year ago, a man was mauled by a bear about an hour from our house.  

The next morning, the camp host told us that it was a momma and baby bear.  They said the bears never go into that campground, but within the last week they had them 2 nights.  Aubrey said the bears were right outside their tent a couple times, so Gavin would just move around to startle the bear, but not scare it.  She said they had food in their tent that Gavin didn't take to the car the first time, and it was right by their baby. :)  We laughed about it because she said she kept telling Gavin to get the food out of the tent because the bear was going to get their baby.   Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep. 

 I was a bit nervous about taking Nala on the boat, because she had never been on the boat.  She did great. She would sit in the bow for a few minutes and then she slept most of the time on the floor.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the kids thought it was HILARIOUS when Nala's ears would flip up from the wind.  They couldn't stop laughing.