October 11, 2006

Ugh! Stupid Bear! We finally went back up to the tepee last night to check on it and see if our little friend had come back or not. We haven’t been up to our property since last Friday morning after the first bear incident. We were in Denver for the weekend for a wedding and then came back late on Sunday night so we stayed with Kirk’s parents in BV. Monday the weather was cold, rainy and dreary so we decided to stay one more night at Kirk’s parent’s house. We woke up Tuesday morning with a dusting of snow everywhere. It was lovely! We were kind of sad we hadn’t stayed up at the tepee since we know it would have been a beautiful sight up there with the snow covering the ground. It ended up being a sunny warm day so the snow melted quickly. We headed up to the tepee last night in the late afternoon so that we could still have the daylight to check it out. We decided to stay since it didn’t look like the bear had been back while we were away. When we were ready for bed, Kirk tied the tepee door closed as best as he could to secure it from the inside. Then he put a tarp on the inside of the tepee door and wedged it between the poles and the inside of the door so that if the bear came back and tried to get in we’d hear the crinkling of the tarp right away. The wind was cranking last night and the tepee poles were steadily creaking. Believe it or not, the tepee barely moves in high winds, but because the poles all lean into one another at the top, when they shift they creak. Not in a way where it feels like it will fall down though. It’s a pretty sturdy structure. The wind made it hard to sleep soundly all night. Anyway, while we were both still half asleep we heard the sounds of an animal on the tepee at about 5am this morning. Immediately following that we heard the crinkling of the tarp being moved around. Kirk thought maybe he didn’t hear me get up and I was going out to use the bathroom and I thought the same thing about him. Then Kirk said, “Jodi is that you?” I said, “NO! I’m right here!” We started yelling and grabbed the whistles that Kirk’s mom gave us and started blowing on them to scare the bear away. The noises didn’t stop right away. Obviously the bear has become braver because he kept trying to get in for a few seconds (which seemed like a lot longer!). Then we heard it banging around outside. We figured it was trying to get into our composter. Eventually it went away and we laid there waiting for the sun to come up. We cautiously emerged from the tepee and saw that the bear had gotten into a trash can that we had outside. We didn’t think it had any trash in it because we never use it. When some friends came to visit several weeks ago they must have thrown their trash in there because there wasn’t a lot, but there was trash strewn around.

We are very sad. We thought that the bear was just scavenging before hibernating and that it would leave us alone. Apparently now it is curious because it came back and this time went straight for the door. Fortunately he hasn’t figured out that he can claw into the tepee, but we don’t want to be there if he does. We’re trying to figure out what our next move is. We’re considering renting an apartment in town. We’re bummed that it feels like we’re being kicked off our property even though we realize the animals were there first.