Return of the Bear.

So the bear came back early this morning. At around 5:30am I awoke to the sound of something sloshing through the water. Our camp is located on the shore of a peninsula between two lakes and moose are frequently in camp. I wasn't sure whether to investigate because it was probably just a moose. Then I heard Delta bark and then there was a bit of movement and splashing and the beast started making a pig-like grunt and a wet snarl that sounded like an orc from Lord of the Rings. At this point I shot up out of my sleeping bag and grabbed my desert camo shorts (commando, bear spray and put on my rubber boots, I grabbed a case for my glasses but it was empty. I could hear the beast moving across the peninsula to the other lake. I emerged from the willows and could see the head of a bear popping up through the marsh blue-joint grass all the while making its orc noises. Since the bear was galloping away from camp, I didn't feel the need to wake alert the camp to the now passed danger, so I climbed the observation tower next to my tent with my (Kowa Genesis 8.5x43) binoculars but could not relocate the bear. I climbed back down and went to Brandt's (my boss) tent and told him about the bear He informed me that he just had a moose “bug out” of camp. My faith in my sighting was a bit shaken but I was pretty goddamn sure I saw a brown colored bear-like creature making orc noises high-tailing it out of camp. I returned to my tent to find it filled with mosquitoes. I was getting hammered by bugs on this warm still morning. I hurried over to the communal cabin and retrieved one of the electric tennis racquet bug zappers and cleared the tent of the wretched swarm and returned to my slumber.

At breakfast Brandt informed me that there was indeed a moose but something else. Tom had heard a moose and the grunting orc-beast noises too. Brandt saw a year old moose swim out in the middle of the lake. So what probably happened was the bear and the moose had an altercation next to camp and the bear bugged out in one direction and the moose in the other.

I have nice named the bear “Gothmog” in honor of the orc in Return of the King. Also in the movie Gothmog is portrayed as being very pale, and this bear is somewhat pale in its pelage. Brandyt keeps referring to it as a black bear, he hasn't seen this bear yet. Ryan, Tom and I have and it is brown in color. I know black bears can come in many color phases besides black, no one who has seen this bear has definitely identified it as a black bear. It may well me a small young grizzly. Considering the Fish and Game guys saw a young grizzly not very far away and that bears are scarce in these parts, I think t is highly likely that it was the bear they saw. We'll just have to wait until it is seen well enough. Although black bears are in season and at least one guy in camp has a tag, maybe it's just wishful thinking.