Bearly On Our Way to Idaho

Yes, bears are cute in theory.

We departed innocently enough from SLO headed for 2 weeks in Ketchum, Idaho.  Our frugal plan was to camp overnight near Truckee, California and sleep in the back of our Jetta station wagon for the one night we would be en route.  All went well - had a great dinner out on the balcony of Truckee Tavern and Grill (recommend it - shared plates, and all that), and then we headed to the Forest Service campground right along the sparkling Truckee River.  Our campsite neighbors in a big RV made us welcome but with a warning - the night before a young couple and their dog were tent camping in our site and in the middle of the night, the dog went on bark alert when a bear ambled into their campsite.  The couple had left their food cooler out under the picnic table.  They quickly abandoned their tent to hide in the car, and the bear went to town, gobbling up the cooler contents and making quite a mess.

So being experienced and forewarned campers, we carefully stowed everything in the car with us as we readied for bed, except for two empty backpacks that I set on top of the car with the bikes.  At 4:30 AM, we woke to the car gently rocking and a bear trying to climb on the hood.  Ben jumped out of the car, in his boxers, and started shouting "Woh Hah!" etc., and throwing rocks and sticks at the bear.  The bear ran off in alarm (after all, Ben was quite a sight) and all I saw was a dark shape disappearing into the campground.

Needless to say, we were wide awake.  We realized we were lucky the bear had not put his paws in the partially opened window and peeled the Jetta like a grape.  Within 10 minutes we were driving east on Highway 80, Idaho bound.