Lyon's Ranch 5-21-10 Bears

Yesterday Sandi had a workshop where she had to go to in Eureka, so I went along for the ride. Actually, I was just figuring on sitting in the car and sleeping until I glanced through one of the freebie papers I picked up. Bingo, my lucky day, there was a kayak demo day going on at the waterfront. Suddenly I wasn’t sleepy anymore. I got there before they had the kayaks unloaded but left so as not to appear too overanxious or excited. I came back an hour or so later and casually walked up and asked, “Is this where the kayaks are being demoed?” “No, idiot, we just bring them down here to wash them off once a year,” was the smart-ass reply, “Want to wash one?”
Anyway, after paddling about 8 kayaks I finally left. It was a lot of fun. There were only about 7 that I really liked.

On the way back to home we drove up to Lyons Ranch again. We had been there two weeks earlier to see the Lupines. We thought that now they would really be in full bloom. It actually got pretty cold the higher we got. The Lupines were still not in full bloom and we came to the conclusion that it has been too cold for the flowers this year. In fact, there was snow at the top. It was odd to see snow so late in the year.

On the way back down we saw a mother bear with two cubs. One of the cubs was a real light tan colored cub about the same shade as Omaha, our dog. They ran off the road before we could get too close to them. We drove up to the point where we saw them disappear into the trees and before I could get the car stopped Sandi bailed out of the car and into the trees.

That’s right, she broke the second rule of being around bears, don’t chase them. I didn’t even have the car off and she was out of the door. So, being the good husband I am I followed her out of the car and jumped into the trees putting myself between her and the bear. Actually I was just running into the woods to get a better picture but that didn’t sound as good, and it wouldn’t read as well on a tombstone. ‘Died While Protecting His Wife’ sounds better than ‘Died While Trying to Get a Picture of a Cub Bear in a Tree.’ Anyway, I did get a picture of the bear in a tree but it was a little fuzzy.

Lyon's Ranch 5-7-10

First trip to see the Lupines. It's a bit early, but we managed to enjoy ourselves.