3/2/03

It became a maddening scene. It was pitch black. The Boys were exhausted and asleep. They had hiked 10 miles, eaten High Altitude's dehydrated chicken curry dinner, and immediately crashed.

Always looking for a little fun, The Knee had secretly taped a salami to the head of one, comatose High Altitude Joe; he had hoped to seduce a grizzly into camp and be the "first" to see a bear!

At 0200 when AXE returned to camp from natures-call he witnessed the largest grizzly in Glacier crawling on its belly to the salami-scented tent of High Altitude and DeWallis. "g" heard the scraping action of something huge outside his tent and grabbed the Powershot to digitize the excitement for G-WeB. Gotta Have A Lighter Pack Larry heard the rustling in "g's" tent; already having delusions of grizzly bears in his head, Larry began to yell, "Bear! Grizzly Bear!" RB, who was sharing a tent with "g", became startled by Larry's yelling, abruptly sat up in his sleeping bag, and witnessed a large shadowy figure ("g") rummaging through their tent; this caused RB to scramble for his pepper spray. DeWallis heard Larry's frenzied alarm, but his words were over shadowed by the yelling and pepper-spraying action in the tent of the Jogging LaBella Brothers; terrorized, DeWallis pretended to be invisible. Satellite Don, who first debuted with the Boys in the Grand Canyon (10-01), heard the commotion from inside his tent. In a sleeping stupor, Don thought it was time to get up and hike and he quickly dressed, loaded up his gear, and hiked-out into the night... by himself. The grizzly, slinking towards the plump cranium of High Altitude Joe with a succulent salami taped to it, caught wind of the campsite's sudden and frantic energy. The bear, sensing an intuitive understanding that these hikers were trouble, abandoned his desire for poaching one... and headed back into the woods... unfortunately, towards an unsuspecting Satellite Don.

Of course, the mayhem described above was simply the product of too much anxiety (terror) and humorous banter amongst the Boys as they planned their trip to grizzly bear... er... Glacier National Park. It was March 2nd and they were seated around a large round table at the Ripe Tomato. It was the annual where will we hike this summer planning dinner... good grief. With grizzlys on their minds, will any of them get a sound night's sleep between March and August?

Anywho, here goes. The Knee is charged with the responsibility to secure hotel reservations and a backcountry permit at Glacier. DeWallis will secure airline tickets once there is confirmation on the permit. "g" will coordinate the planning and development of dehydrated dinners for 8. It is guaranteed, that in the months to follow, the Boys will agonize over the potential for a grizzly bear encounter, packing only the lightest of gear, and the 50 miles of uncertain terrain they will hike over.

The links that follow will track the Boy's evolving progress towards:
Glacier National Park - A Grizzly Bear Behind Every Stone (8-03)