Black Bear III- getting pooed on by a cub

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As usual, most days are either morning or afternoon shift we work first; the morning shift feeds bears and makes food, then the afternoon shift will finish the food or do outdoor work like clean sites or make bear beds. Then we hang around doing some work and feed bears as they come in . At 3:30 we eat dinner then prepare for the visitors to come in from 5pm-8 or 9pm. I prefer working admissions as i just sell a few tickets and then read my book.

We have a few new volunteers: 2 girls from CA i don't have much to say about, they are younger and very typical young american girl i guess... and a volunteer called Buddy who i could write a short story on, but will make it short and entertaining... Buddy showed up, no one knows why, to volunteer for a week. On first impression this guy would appear to be quite scary- like a burnt out ex-stoner hippy turned to serial killer... He is quite nice but everyone on his first few nights here slept with cabins locked or a bit uneasy. Around others, he never talks. But when you get him alone with one or two people, he is so chatty! but he mumbles and has a low voice is quite hard to hear! He told a few of us how 'back home he is known for 2 things; pipe bombs and big explosive fires'. He told me stories of tylenol bottles he turned to bombs and blew up in intersections catching trees and houses on fire, and how he used to throw rocks and smash out all the windows to a deli... or all these other stories that end in "I can't believe we never got caught" or "I don't know how the police never found us" ... he is always trying to cook although no one is confident in his food but it always turns out okay. He'll cook even when someone else has signed up for it. He tried to simmer a beef roast in Chunky soup for 5 hours so the water evaporated and all was left was the meat and potatoes! No soup left anymore! He charred the pan in the process but it was pretty good and had a barbeque flavor (from the burnt)... We had a campfire he started and it was quite impressive and it only took him one try where many volunteers take much longer to get going, and he didn't even use lighter fluid...

We can sign up for one day a week and on one of our days off we walked a trail to see where it goes. It was just to a few deer stands and to a large pond with a beaver dam. Step, Jason and i took this aluminum boat out once which the boys made me paddle with one oar since it was Jason’s day off and Step hurt his back. We - i mean i - managed to navigate the waters without any incidents. Another day i was driving a new volunteer, Joel, from a daily chore of picking up more food for the bears from the barn and we saw a large wolf running ahead of us! I was driving a manual truck full of food and not too good at starting and stopping so we didn’t get a better look but he disappeared into the woods anyway. It’s really rare to see wolves around there, but we did see a very large wolf print in some bear poo and we do hear them around.

Wrapping up the last bit of time at the sanctuary... Well, it’s been really fun. I enjoy seeing the bears, learning their names, watching their behaviour. It’s fun to try to stay entertained with no electricity and hanging out with the other volunteers, well most of them anyway... Step and i booked Greyhound tickets to New York where are flight leaves from. Greyhound has more than doubled their prices -- I HATE Greyhound! How annoying!! We missed the old cheap prices by four days! Argh!! Ah well, i guess just take in the unexpected. It happens...

My last day was a bit interesting. I got to do evening feedings which i love to do. I had seen a male bear i couldn’t identify so i got our expert identifier and we walked out to the woods to find him, but of course he just walked away and never looked at us. As we were standing there watching him disappear into the woods, we heard things falling all around us, we looked up and saw a cub looking down on us... HE WAS POOING ON OUR HEADS! We tried to pretend like nothing happened since the visitors were on the deck, but Joel was on deck and he saw it and told everyone. Later when i went to do final rounds just before it got dark, a huge storm cloud loomed overhead. I tried to hurry and feed before the storm came, and just as i entered the woods where a whole lot of yearlings were hanging out , there were about 12-16 that hang out together since they’ve just been dispersed by their moms. I tried to put food down but they sensed the storm approaching and were clinging to trees and terrified. The storm cloud rushed in and the wind picked up as it became increasingly darker. The little bears panicked and scattered, some up trees and some nearly knocking me down. I thought, ‘oh this is crap’ and went to leave because i didn’t want a tree to fall on my head, which happens a lot during windy weather there. Just then i looked across the field and Joel was galloping toward me waving his arms telling me to come in, it’s too dangerous to feed. That was really funny to see a grown man dancing through the field waving his arms about. The storm was fierce but quickly passed that night. That was a good way to end our stay.

Onward now, to Central America!

^Út Í Óvissuna^

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