Yes you do. And like I tell everyone who wants to visit out here. I can be your guide and offer a place to stay. From here Yellowstone is a short two hour drive and breakfast in Jackson Hole is only three hours from here.

I live in the little mountain town of Lander. Right next to the Wind River Mountains, part of the greater Rocky Mtns. Cold and miserable in the winter time but heaven in the summer time. Right now it's about 30

Spring 1971 and if anyone would have told me I would live through a bear encounter I would have said, well not sure what I would have said. There was just no way it was going to happen. Besides, what would a bear want with a scrawny twelve year old? I was nothing more than a bag of bones with an appetite. So when this bear wandered into the tent I was sleeping in I would much prefered he went after my buddy but noooooooooo he decided I wouldn't put up much of a fight. You see my buddy was taking boxing lessons. I think this bear and all his bear buddies sat around late that night discussing among themselves who to drag out of the tent kicking and screaming. I think they decided my eleven year old buddy might be to tough for them and decided the skinny kid would make a decent meal. DECENT!! What the!!!!,,,, is that all I was to them just a decent meal, goodness they could of at least said I might taste like chicken.

So here it was, spring, somewhere around the year of 1971, give or take a year or two and I was invited to go camping with my uncles family and his kid brother, the boxer. Being kids with a taste for adventure we knew the weekend was going to produce lots of memories. Little did I know that the one thing I was going to remember most was the screaming and kicking. The little things that led up to that fateful morning are still fresh in my mind.

Being the kids we were and spending our time outdoors with nothing but our imaginations allowed us to conjure up many adventures. Even when we were indoors life was as much of an adventure as we could make of it. Hell, Will Rogers and The Lone Ranger had nothing on our outdoor adventures. I'll bet they never broke there mothers dresser
while playing cowboys and indians throughout the house. Bet there moms never beat em for breaking the dresser either. Kicking and screaming didn't help either, the beatings only continued. Come to think of it, the bear would never have considered coming into the tent had mom been there. One look from her and he's of turned and left the country. Good thing mom wasn't there that would have been just way to wierd. Besides this bean pole managed to fight his way free from yogi.

So the adventure for the weekend was the same as any weekends adventure in the mountains. My buddy and I became Jim Bridger and Jeramiah Johnson. The most feared mountain men who ever walked the high mountain peaks of the Rockies fighting indians and wild animals. Sneaking through camp, hiding behind the cooler and when no one was looking sneaking out a pepsi and bag of lays potato chips. If we ever got caught we would have to undergo the torture from the enemy. I might add the enemy in the form of an aunt can be quite intimidating. Never mess with an aunt wielding a spatula, or a rolling pin, or a broom, and if nothing else she always carried with her a shoe......or two. Our most feared enemy of the time usually had a name like, mom or aunt. Or if we were brave enough we called them something else, by accident of course, and then had to undergo more torture. You all remember those plastic jump ropes, the ones that would play tricks on you when you were not looking and whap you in the back of the head?You do? Yeah well our butts sure know how your heads felt when the enemy got ahold of us.

Anyway I better get back to the bear.

You see my buddy and I were not allowed to have high powered rifles because our parents felt we could not be trusted with them, heck they wouldn't even let us have BB guns. How on earth did they expect us to survive the great out door adventures without a trusty daisy BB gun? Parents are no fun. So instead they let us hava a bow and quiver of arrows. Yeah well I bet Jim Bridger and Jeramiah Joshnson didn't have to sneak through the woods with a bow and arrows, How unbelievable is that!!!. Good gosh we used to say to them, we need a BB gun if were going to be killin things.

Ok back to the bear. You see even with bow and arrows we were the most feared mountian men even if it was all in our own minds. Ummm, I might add that our arrows came equipped with those little suction cups on the end, you know, the ones you had to lick to get them to stick. So anytime the enemy was closing in on us we were frantically
licking the suction cups in hopes we could, first of all hit the enemy and second of all that the arrow would stick inflicting mortal damage to the enemy.

After a day of adventure in the woods one of the dreaded enemies gave the call out to all unsuspecting mountain men, the one we all love to hear, SUPPER TIME. So as we made our way back to camp satisfied with the days adventure knowing we would not be going hungry we had forgot about the pepsi and chips. Before supper we got a scolding from one of the dreaded aunts and as our punishment we had to do dishes and put everything away. HEY WAIT A MINUTE, I yelled out, Jim Bridger never had to wash dishes. WHAP, WHAP. Damn, I thought to myself. My buddy was smart enough to keep his mouth shut. So after dishes we headed out into the woods to set up our own
camp for the night. We figured we were big enough to have our own tent as far away from our anut and uncles tent as possible, as long as we could see there tent from ours. Gotta keep a little safety protocal in place. You never know when our aunt and uncle might just need a little saving from wild animals.

Ah yes, the food. You see being the kids we were we forgot to put the food away for the night. It was spring time and the bears were coming out of hibernation and looking for a meal. So as my buddy and I lay in our sleeping bags something was going through camp having a feast. Both of us poked our heads around the corner of the tent and
could see something large roaming through camp. Chit, we thought, we forgot about the food. I don't know what my buddy did and frankly at the time I did not care. I pulled my trusty little bow with suction cup arrows inside my sleeping bag and began frantically praying to God to keep me safe. And the whole time I was doing my best to make sure the suction cups were kept moist just in case the bear decided to come looking for us. I prayed myself to sleep.

Next thing I know I am being attacked. Well almost, you see something is laying on top of me. My sleeping bag is still pulled over my head and I am only half awake, I think the other half knew what was coming and was to chicken to wake up and face the encounter. Or maybe he decided I only needed to be scared half out of my wits. Damn good thing he was thinking cause I still have some left, even to this day. After all what good is a man without half his wits.

So there I am half asleep when something crawls into the tent and lays on top of me. I slowly move the sleeping bag off my face and right there, face to face is the biggest blackest face I haved ever encountered. This thing was laying on top of me looking me in the eye. Oh man was I ever scared to death. My mouth and half my wits hollered out "GET OUT OF HEAR" while throwing up my arms. I think the suddenness of it and the fact that this skinny thing sounded so scared is what saved me. This thing bolted from the tent. My screaming woke my buddy who seen this big black body running out the door and so he followed him out. Not to be outdone I followed my buddy out. Running away from our tent at break neck speed was the biggest, mangiest looking dog I have ever seen. Yes the almost bear that almost had me for a meal turned out to be a big black dog. We never did figure out where it came from since we were the only ones out at the time.

So there you have it, my bear encounter. Hope you enjoyed it.

LAMons "deepest thoughts of a woman" Inspired me to upload this one here. Hope you enjoy it.



The core of a woman

The way she looks at you when you catch her watching you.
Her eyes mesmerize you as you walk toward her.
Her warmth flows from her body as you stand hand in hand.
Her gentle kiss tells you, You are her man.

She carries your babies, mothering your children.
Her maternal instincts kicking in, you have no worries,
she's there, the glue, the bond, holding and keeping
the family bound, tightly woven together.

She makes sure your children are well cared for.
In the middle of the night she wakes to their call,
she feeds them then gently, with a soothing voice,
sings them to sleep with a childhood lullaby.

If you are lucky enough you can watch her as she sits
with her child snuggled and protected in her arms
while in quiet comfort they both sleep.
Your gentle kiss lets her know, She is your woman.

She treasures the little things you give her,
like the heart, shaped from a wire tie.

She'll go to a baseball game with you and
when your team hits a home run she'll jump
up and yell, "TOUCH DOWN!!"

She can make a gourmet meal out of
macaroni and cheese.

She can, and sometimes will mow the lawn
She can change a flat, check the oil,
and even push you on your motorcycle
as you try to jump start it.
Laughing with you as the neighbors look on

She can even jump start your engine with
her own little Victoria Secret.

What a woman!!!
Damn you are a lucky man!!!

Emanating from her core are tendrils
which carry on the vines things such as,
Love,
Kindness,
Compassion,
Empathy,
Joy,
Peace,
and even a strong faith.

These things travel through her heart,
the place where her core resides.
It is safe from corruption.
Her heart may break but her core can never be hurt.

And at the end of the day,
all she asks, and needs, is to
hear three little words.

"I love you"

Next time you see him drag his sorry butt in here to the community room and we'll bury the body when we're done.

Reminds me of the time I was picking my youngest up at school, he was a first grader, and one of his class mates gave me the finger for telling her not to break the bottle on the street. I marched her little carcass into the principles office. She never done it again.

Aww,,, you need a hug.