I've had a couple of mini adventure campouts last week and this. Last night got a little scary. After camping Monday night a bit north of Morenci, I'd continued north and then east on 260 from 191 near Springerville. 260 runs west through Show Low out to Payson. Getting closer to Payson, I turned south on a dirt/paved road that runs about 60 miles on a wonderfully scenic route through Tonto NF to Roosevelt Lake. Still up in the mountains, I found a campsite with a fire ring and level ground. I made a little dinner right away, and cleaned up all of the food. I set up my tent, built a fire, and after the sun set, I was just sitting quietly next to the fire.
I turned on the weather radio and almost simultaneously, I heard some twigs breaking in the forest. I turned down the radio and all was silent. When I turned the radio back on, I could hear the crunching through the leaves and pine needles again. Hmm...I thought. While searching for firewood earlier, I'd seen some fairly fresh bear scat. So with this movement in the woods I was now on high alert. I pulled out my flashlight and started to scan the trees. And sure enough, there were four glowing little eyes sort of weaving and bobbing, watching me. My blood started pumping. I was somewhat alarmed as these two sets of eyes, about 25 yards away, each seemed to be about a foot apart. And I thought bears eyes were generally pretty close together. So unless it was actually a cow or something, (which it definitely was not), they were pretty large bears. I stood up and grabbed the thickest stick I could find in my stack of wood and banged it against a thick log. It made quite a loud crack again and again as I yelled, "No! Bad bear! Bad bear!" And eventually the glowing little eyes disappeared. I was trembling for a while, and kept doing 360° scans of the area for the next hour. I feel silly, but I certainly considered which direction my motorcycle was pointed and how quickly I could jump on and take off. Unfortunately I'd have had to leave the tent and other equipment until I could come back the next day. But it turns out that wasn't necessary and I had a moderately restful sleep inside the tent, wearing my boots, riding suit, and helmet! I had to keep telling myself, "Jeff, they've gone away." And truly they had. It was about 4:00 a.m. this morning when it started to get light, and at 32°, I headed back south towards Roosevelt Lake and Globe, all gear safely packed. Isn't that wild! I guess one additional precaution I could take in the future is to try to camp near other people. It pays to be aware of your surroundings.
