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Day: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 | |
 Cito Climbing Site |
We remained at Cimarroncito for another day with the option to do a side hike to Hidden Valley to view Window Rock.
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As we prepared our lunch in the campsite (a rather rare occurrance),
we got a bit of a shock. A bear wandered into camp. It was
a juvenile, fortunately, and had no angry mother around it. It
was a brown bear. Philmont does not have grizzly bears, despite the
name of the landmark, "Grizzly Tooth".
David came in handy as a bear shield
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It passed less than 50 feet in front of David while we were on the trail on the edge of camp. It did not even seem to care that we were there, and headed straight for the picnic table. Banging pots and making noise did not help scare him away. Because it was lunch time, we did not have our bear bags up, nor could we get them up in time.
We already had three packages set out for lunch, and he tore into one or two. His claws had no difficulty in slicing through the squeeze packs of peanut butter -- items which always seemed to give human hands some difficulty. It was like he just knew what he was doing. I am sure he did. This bear clearly knew how to eat human food in the middle of the day.
 Bear at picnic table |
 Bear still at picnic table |
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| Bear wouldn't go away |
The bear then smelled our trash bag and started taking items out of it. He made quite a mess on the ground.
The bear continued to eat our lunch. He took one of Greg's packages
of seasonings and jumped down from the table.
John was napping in my tent when this event occurred, and he woke
up in the middle of it, unzipped the flap to get out for lunch, and
saw the bear right in front of him. He laid back down, deciding it
was best to play asleep.
Everyone wanted pictures, but we knew to keep our distance.
Greg's camera had a zoom lens to capture the moment. But,
folks, let me stress this: do not intentionally get close to a bear --
either adult or cub. Do not attempt to feed them, approach them,
or chase them. John played asleep because he had little choice
with the bear right in front of his tent. But, this is not
recommended in general. Just move away, and stay away. Consult
your Philmont Ranger and Guidebook for advice on bears.
After poking his nose through the bags, the bear just left.
Greg adds:
"The reason that the bear quit eating our lunches was because he got into the hot pepper spices I had brought and wandered off to find some water that didn't have any iodine in it."
Well, this intrusion left us without one day's supply of food.
I had to cancel my plans to go to Hidden Valley because I had to
return to the Ute Gulch Commissary to explain what had happened,
and retrieve more food. So, unfortunately, I do not have any
Window Rock/Hidden Valley pictures, per se.
That is a shame, because Window Rock and its partner, Cathedral Rock,
are great sights.
However, here is a picture I took of Window Rock as viewed from the
magnifying window in the Villa Philmonte estate -- the window from
which Window Rock gets its name.
Of course, you can no longer actually see Window Rock from this
window, because of the tree that has grown up in the centre of the
picture. And, of course, were the tree not there, Window Rock is
so far away as to be barely visible anyway without the help of
a zoom lens.
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DAY 9: CIMARRONCITO |
| DAY 11: UPPER CLARK'S FORK |  |
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