It's coming up, It's coming up, It's coming up...

It's bear!!!
Today we saw our first black bear (Ursus americanus). We have been longing to see one since we arrived in California in april. Despite several trips to national parks and forests and being on the look out like eagles for mice we hadn't been lucky so far.

When we arrived in Kings Canyon the numerous warnings, way more numerous and explicit than in Yosemite, didn't leave much doubt: this was bear country. When cooking food on the campfire on Moraine Campground saturday night we all of a sudden noticed a bunch of park rangers. They were scanning the environment with one of these antennas one often sees in wildlife documentaries. We hurried to them to hear that there was a female bear that had been scouring the campground lately for food. Since the bear was tagged with a radio device they were able to track it.
We stored all our food, toothpaste and anything that could attract a bear carefully in the bearbox, took the video camera and digital camera into the tent... hoping for... But no luck.

A hike on sunday and a night on a fairly remote campground at pretty high altitude, a perfect setting for a bear encounter, didn't bring any luck.

Monday we went for a last hike to Weaver Lake, high and remote enough, for... you guessed it, a bear sighting. But again, despite a beautifull and rewarding hike, no joy :(

When driving home we were chatting about how nice the weekend, even without spotting a bear. On the winding roads that take you out of Sequoia National Park we all of a sudden had to break because of a bunch of cars that had stopped in a bend. A couple of people were standing at the side of the road, gazing into the woods. One guy whispered 'bear... bear...'. Hilde grabbed the camera and jumped out of the car before I could stop. By the time I got out of the car I had spotted a big dark blob of fur making it's way towards an oak tree. A bear! In no time it made it's way high into the tree. From high up it was casually looking down while ripping off some twigs and eating them. Quite a sight seeing an animal of that size playfully hopping around in a tree. Minutes later it came down and continued it's way through the shrub.

We couldn't have wished for a better end to our weekend.

Luck often lure's just around the corner.

more pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/esse/sets/72157594273103014/