PCT Day 18 – A Menagerie of Bears

Campsite at mile 248 to HWY 18/Big Bear city (mile 266)

At mile 250 we’re stopped short by what our guide app euphemistically calls a “private zoo.” The compound for Randy Miller’s Predators in Action (http://www.predatorsinaction.com), consists of a house and a half dozen 12×12 foot chain link cages which at various times contain big predators who are largely used in films and other staged entertainment. Today there is just one lone bear pacing back and forth, back and forth in it’s too small cage. Head drooping, eyes dull, it unenthusiastically rolls it’s one toy – a small bare tree stump – before returning to pacing. Oh bear, I think, you do not deserve this. Behind me the sounds of cars heading towards Big Bear city draw my attention. A town that adorns nearly every street corner and business with images of bears, the people so removed from real bears, from this bear. I wonder how many people even know this creature is up here alone. It’s a morose way to start the day, but what can we do here in this moment? Nothing. And so we move on.

As we walk through the cool morning Keith and I talk about the latest films we saw with a wild animal in it. I honestly can’t remember what it was, but I know I’ve certainly been part of the problem. Escaped into an on-screen fiction where live animals performed for my entertainment and I never spared a thought as to their lives off screen. It makes me feel dirty. I hope CG will soon remove the need for real animals in films and television.

My attention is drawn back to the trail by the presence of bear poop, evidence of the local black bear population. The conversation shifts to the few bear encounters we’ve had over years of hiking, laughing at how many people ask PCT hikers if they’re going to carry a gun to defend against bears. It’s sad how little most folks know about bears, envisioning them as these vicious human-eating super predators, when in reality most bears want nothing to do with you. It’s during this conversation that we discover that we’ve lost the PCT and meandered onto a different trail. Dang. I can see the PCT across the small valley, but instead of backtracking we endeavor down our new trail, assuming it will join back up eventually. The grand thing about going on an adventure is that nothing can really go wrong, it can only turn into more of an adventure!

The afternoon passes in a series of blustery hill climbs, our pace increasing as our eagerness for town builds. Eventually we are deposited at the Snow Bear lodge, my only favorite place in this town of bears, where for $90/night you can get a hotel room where nothing matches and there is a jacuzzi in the corner. I flop face down onto the red patchwork quilt and endeavor not to move for a very long time.