May 5 2007

About this time in the year 2000, a group of club members went on a back packing trip to Yosemite National Forest. They were in exceedingly good spirits. Because firearms are not allowed in the park, they were able to pack in a good deal more home brew than they could have had it been otherwise.
Most of the crowd were amateur naturalists, and Vince Bruno fancied himself a bit of a mountain man. Vince was bored with all the photographing of animals and poking sticks in animal droppings and what not, and told the rest of the troop that he would go on ahead and meet them at the lake.
Being advised to be careful, that it was Spring, and that there were grizzlies in the area, Vince assured them that the bells on his clothing and the pepper spray on his belt would be all the protection that he would need. He grabbed more than his share of the beer, and took off down the trail.
In the days that followed, as the rest of the boys made their leisurely way toward the lake, the hours around the campfire time and again were sprinkled with talk related to the effectiveness of bells and pepper spray in warding off grizzly bears.
There were two camps, so to speak.
One day away from the lake, they found some grizzly scat, and while poking around in it, found what looked remarkably like one of those little leather pouches that pepper spray attaches to your belt with. They huddled over the bear scat and looked ominously at each other.
Standing up, Henry Parsons hollered, "I won’t have any of this negative thinking!" and kicked the pile of scat with his boot.
Before they saw the glints of silver, they heard the cheery little tinkling sounds.
That night, sipping beer around the campfire, there was no discussion of the efficacy of bells and pepper spray in warding off grizzlies.
No, at this point they were pretty much in agreement on that score.

Till next week
Helga Biermeister
Secretary