Bear adventure and my random thoughts.

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Should there be anyone reading this who may be living in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and on the off chance you are close to Dodge Ridge Ski Resort.... and you happen to run into a bear all hopped up on caffeine...... I apologize. On the plus side, he won't be hungry because along with all of my coffee, he stole my cream (so he had some great coffee) and.... all of our food!

Bear with me for a moment while I paint the picture (pun intended).....

At (almost) 4:00 this morning my son and I lay in our tent....in a campground empty of all people - except for us. We often camp that way, looking for the most empty campground as possible. The preferred camping method is out in the middle of nowhere, but if I camp without my husband we go to the campgrounds because they are right next to the road. There are cars that drive by on occasion and usually one other group camping nearby - safety reasons..... but on this trip we were alone in a campground, nothing but a piece of fabric between us and a ginormous bear consuming all food and beverage. Now normally, when camping we hang food from a tree that is far from camp, or hike the food to the car at night. This particular trip we were in my jeep which is without a top so we opted for removing all the smelly stuff (burning what we did not eat for dinner) then taking the non-smelly stuff and placing it as far away from us as possible, just in case.....

The bear came into the campground from the opposite end we were at and rummaged through the garbage cans to get any left over

food. At one time they had "bear proof" cans which was great so why they took them out, I do not know. We have bears, they are everywhere. Anyway, as he walked through camp I guess he decided to take advantage of a free meal. I woke up to the sound of snapping twigs and I knew what it was.

Earlier we had taken one of the covers off the tent so we could watch the stars while keeping mosquitoes and other unwanted bugs off of us while we slept. I am glad we did so I could see what was happening. I quietly covered my son with all of my blankets to make sure he was very warm and would not wake up or move. Then I propped myself up and sat, still as a statue and watched for the bear to leave. All I could see was a dark outline but that was all I needed to know what it was.

I sat.....

about a half hour later the bear, once finished with crackers and top ramen, coffee, hot chocolate and all other snack items we had he ran off........ with my ice chest in his mouth. I sat still for about 15 minutes longer to be sure he was gone. I got up and as fast as I could to pack up camp - (all except the tent) and loaded it into my jeep..... got my son up and dressed, tent broken down and put in the jeep in moments time. I did not know it was possible to break down camp that fast. I felt it was a good idea to get him out of there on the off chance that bear came back for another snack. We drove down the mountain and got hot chocolate and breakfast at the local bakery.

So how exactly did that make me think of WA?

well... that is a good question.

Our early morning incident has played over in my mind all day. I keep thinking about what could have happened? What if I had been the kind of person to panic? Would the bear have run off or attacked? I don't know.... all I know is that I had to stay still and quiet as to not disturb that bear - let him take the food and go. Otherwise, if he attacked my only option would be to roll on my son to cover him and sacrifice myself which I would have done in a heartbeat - running is the worst thing you can do so being still and not upsetting the bear is the best option.

The key word? WAIT.

That has everything to do with WA. Sometimes a wait is necessary. Patiently and quietly waiting. I have been in a funk here at WA wondering why my site is not ranked? losing motivation to write, but still writing... wondering why am I only getting 1-5 visitors a day? Why a couple clicks but no sales? can I write? or do I totally suck?

I work, write, research, take care of my kids, cook, clean, paint, go to shows, make jewelry, go to more shows, deliver to and pick up from galleries, update my Etsy site, maybe add jewelry to eBay too.... and start the cycle over again (except for the kiddos thing, that, obviously is done while I am doing all other things.....). I have so many full time jobs of the non-paying type it's not even funny yet as hard as I work at everything I do I am broke but should be a millionaire. I have read posts about others wondering if they should quit and one in particular joined WA a month after me - The first thought that went through my head is NO!!! don't give up, you can't ever succeed that way! Then I thought, am I just stupidly hanging on and wasting money I don't have just to not make money..... again? Am I hoping for something I am not going to see? should

I be more realistic about what I can accomplish here? NO. I need to wait, be patient. Give it time to do what it's going to do..... plug along, one post at a time. WAIT.

The point I am making is that sometimes patience and waiting pay off.... BIG. Like this morning, had I panicked, grabbed my son and ran we could have been mauled by that bear (given running from a bear is pointless and the worst thing you can do). It could have run off, but the outcome could have been very different from the fairly quiet exit we had in the wee hours of the early morning..... it's the same with

many other things including a business of this nature. wait. Be still. Think. Act when necessary but not before.why? it can ruin things. it's that simple.

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Recent Comments

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This is so well written and it drew me right in. You made a great connection to waiting. I don't camp but that sure would have ended my camping days! And I agree with Jerry, patience is a virtue. But is isn't always easy....but neither is facing down a bear. Yikes!

It was scary but I’ve been in the mountains all my life... I will camp again, soon.... just with my husband next time lol

As you said so well WAIT. After all patience is a virtue.
Jerry

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