The Silver Eye

How The Silver Eye Should Have Ended: Berlyne picks up the bazooka. Nathan doesn’t stand a chance. Whole story is much shorter.

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Alright, here is bear story #1: It is my sister’s birthday. We go to a picnic area with a beach. As me and mom walk onto the beach, I notice a group of people all standing and staring the same direction (always a sign that something is up). One man says, “Hey guys, just so you know, there’s a bear over there.” Sure enough, there is a bear about 30 feet away eating something in the brush. We give it space and me and mom go sit on a log on the beach. The bear lumbers onto the beach in our direction. I snap some nice pics of it in front of El Capitan, when it gets near me and mom bail the log. Mom leaves her book on the log. As the bear passes it, he gives it some inspecting snuffles, wiping his snot all over it, then he swipes it off the log in dismissive disapproval.

Everyone on the beach begins to scram as the bear comes their way. One family grabs their little kids up– but they leave all their stuff, including their cooler. The bear goes straight for the it. He bites it and smacks it around in frustration. Once he has managed to open it, his feast begins. He has his fill, also eating some baby wipes from the poor family’s stroller. When the bear is satisfied, he goes to the side of the river for a drink, and proceeds to lay down for a nap (very cutely, it was like he was looking at his reflection). I doodled him.

It is then that the park rangers show up. The bear spots them immediately and now it is his time to scram. One park ranger is very gung-ho. He shoots at the bear with rubber bullets and scares it off with flares and whistles. It gets outta there in a flash. Another park ranger hangs out to give a debriefing and we find out the bear’s name is Yellow 32.

Now, you’re supposed to yell at bears and try to scare them away from human places. I knew that, but I’m reserved and have never raised my voice at anything (at least in my grown up life), so I didn’t really have that in me. 50 or so other people were on the beach were just watching the bear in awe and it’s like… what you know you’re supposed to do goes out the window sometimes when you’re in the moment. Which is to say, remember to yell at the bear! Even if no one else is and it feels very unnatural. Apparently even if a bear has grown accustomed to human food, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will get put down, which is something we had heard. So the fact that this mischievous bear lived free to raid picnics another day was a huge relief.

This is not the last run in we will have with Yellow 32, so tune in next week for more!

Thanks for reading! I missed you guys so much and I think you are wonderful!