Well, we had some interesting experiences on our camping trip. Adventures even! When I got there I heard that there was a bear close to our camp. I was a bit nervous about the fact that Brett was sleeping in a tent that night. Especially since an 11 yr old boy was drug out of his tent and killed by a bear about 1 am just 3 weeks ago up American Fork Canyon. But everyone said, "that was the first recorded instance of a bear killing a person in Utah's history, it isn't going to happen again..." So Brett slept in the tent, and I prayed for Brett, and all of the other people who were sleeping in a tent in our camp. That night, the bear killed a couple of lambs that were in the flock that we had to keep chasing out of our camping area, so that day, a professional bear hunter for the state of Utah, went on the hunt for the bear with his hounds. We heard the dogs barking and we heard the gunshot that killed the bear. That morning Kim took Brett down so he could go to work. On the way back Kim saw the hunters coming out of the hills with the remains of the bear (he took the head and the pelt of the bear to turn in to the Govt -for pay). He came back to camp and so we went to see the bear that had gone to his happy hunting grounds. It isn't everyday you have to share your camping area with a bear after all. They actually had the story of "our" bear on the news, we heard. Why? Who knows...maybe just that after what happened to the 11 yr old, everyone would like to know that "no bears are out tonight". Incidentally, the hunter was the same one who killed the bear that killed the boy.
We were camped in the "New area" at Reservation Ridge. It was probably only 5 miles from Strawberry Peak. When went riding the first day we arrived, we saw that a Huge forest fire was burning somewhere in the direction of the Uintah Basin. That night when people came up from the valley they told us it was the Neola fire, the biggest fire currently in the USA, and that it had already killed 3 people. So on about day 3 the Thomases came into camp and said that the Lightening storm we had just had had started a fire on the top of Strawberry Peak, close to the Meadow that we all LOVE up there, as it is so Beautiful!! I was just as concerned about the meadow as I was camping that close to us (especially if the wind came up again coming our direction, as it would carry the sparks out and start many fires closer to us which would of course spread in the wind too.) If the fire got close enough to need to get out fast, we would have only been able to save either the travel trailer or the ATV's and their trailer as we could only pull one out at a time. Thus the concern. We went and took pictures. We saw the helicopter come and investigate the fire, and we checked it again before we went to bed. And then the next morning, we checked it again and the fire was out, so we went on our ride up there. The firefighters had arrived at 11pm, and had most of the fire out...but it was still smouldering. They were just eating their MRE's while waiting for more water to arrive. ....so we got some fun pictures with Saundra's camera when she sends them, I will have to put a couple on the blog. Incidentally, there was a 3rd fire that started before we left that was relatively close. Things were very smokey by the end of the week, thus the haze in the pictures.
We saw some new great areas, that you will all want to explore someday...truly beautiful!
Anyway...it is back to the 100 plus heat of the valley...and back to the real world. Grandpa had a great time with Buffy, who took him out to dinner 3 times, to a play, shopping...etc. Thanks to Buffy for doing such a great job.
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