The Bear

Yesterday was a perfect day for caching, nice fall weather, crisp, sunny. I knew I couldn't just stay home, so I called a friend and begged her to go caching with me. She obliged and we met at a cool cemetery, from where we proceeded to go find the cache.

First surprise was finding a empty toolbox next to the trail, together with a bunch of empty packages of ready to eat meals. What happened? Did some one get scared away by an animal, which proceeded to eat the remainders of his meals? It sure looked like it! The packages were pretty much ripped to pieces. I threw the thrash in the back of her pickup truck, practicing sound 'Cache In Trash Out' principles. It was very needed, we found beer bottles and an anti freeze bottle close to the cache, how messy!

Second surprise was seeeing something that looked suspiciously like ice on the pond. I am sure it must just have been some interesting looking algae or so. It just can't be this close to winter yet!

We found the cache pretty easily. While we were looking at the cache contents, my friend M said she thought she heard some animal in the woods. I reassured her that it was most likely just a squirrel. Making jokes about how I always think I am going to see this really interesting animal, and then it turns out to be yet another squirrel. I was wrong this time.

Because the third surprise was meeting some hunters. M got to talk with one of them. He just had seen a > 400 lbs bear around where we had found the cache... So much for the noises being a squirrel.

We hightailed it out of there, and now have a pretty good idea of what must have happened to the owners of the toolbox...

Yesterday, Erik was doing better, but this morning at 4am or so, we had yet another puking episode. And both Erik and Kate woke up coughing. I want it to be summer again!