Recently I visited New Mexico on business, and while there I learned about the local Tarantula migration. Yes, you read that correctly….a SPIDER migration. And these are not just any spiders; we are talking big, hairy, scary tarantulas. Now I live in Alaska, and we have plenty of scary critters here, but give me a pack of foaming grizzlies any day over a swarm of hairy spiders. EWWW! I have permanently scratched off New Mexico as a potential retirement location.
I suppose that wherever we call
home, we learn to tolerate the ‘critters’ that reside alongside us. After 25 years of living in Alaska, I really
do not care for bears – but I’ve learned to live with them. No, I do not like it when I take my trash
outside, turn the corner of the house and practically smash into a bear dining
on treasures that he is selecting out of my dumpster. But I recover, albeit with lots of screaming
and tossing of lawn furniture as I scramble back towards the safety of my front
door. I’ve learned to live alongside
bears, but it has taken years of close bear encounters to reach this level of
tolerance
One of my first summers in
Alaska, my husband and I decided to take a road trip down the Alcan
highway. We were a young couple with
lots of dreams and just starting our life together. Determined to enjoy an adventurous trip in
the wilderness, we decided to drive from Fairbanks all the way to Salem, Oregon
to spend a week with my family. We
didn’t have much cash to spare, so we opted to save money on lodging and instead
camp in our pick up truck alongside the road.
Afterall, our truck had a canopy on the bed, so we figured we would be
quite comfortable. We climbed into our
old Ford pick-up truck along with our Black Labrador pup and one very patient
cat, and headed out into the Last Frontier.
Mountain goats and Dall sheep were the first wildlife we saw on our
first day of driving. By the time we
reached the Canadian border, we had seen all kinds of critters, were grinning
and feeling like experienced road wanderers.
After all, it was 2am, the sun was setting and we had driven across
Alaska all by ourselves.
Our plan was to spend the nights
at rest areas and camp grounds along the way.
However…we didn’t realize that in North Western Canada, a rest area generally
consists of a slight widening of the road accompanied by a garbage can. Undeterred
by our meager accommodations, we settled in for the night at one of these
humble pull-outs. My hubby, Burke and
our puppy curled up in the back bed of the truck. They were protected from the weather and warm
under the covered truck canopy. I opted
to sleep on the bench seat in the front of the truck along with our cat,
Wimpy. I fell asleep listening to the
sounds of an occasional log truck rumbling along the road. But I wasn’t asleep for long. At first I thought that the truck was rocking
back and forth because Burke and the puppy were rough-housing in the back of
the truck. I even mumbled a few choice
words under my breath about how SOME people were pretty darn considerate at
4AM. But as I slowly opened my eyes, I
noticed my cat was backed up against the driver door and her eyes were
huge. She was staring at the passenger
window, which was directly over my head. Yawning and stretching, I rolled over
to look out the window and see what had caught Wimpy’s attention, and came
nose-to-nose with a large black bear sow!
She stood on her hind legs and had been scratching at the cab door while
rocking the truck in hopes of a kitty-snack.
Well now the truck was really rocking as I screamed and threw all of the
contents of the cab at the passenger window and the bear behind it! Startled by all of the noise created by the maniacal
human in the front cab, the bear pushed off of the truck and scampered away on
all fours. Thankfully my screams awoke
Burke and he was able to view the large bear trotting off, so I at least had a
confirmed witness of the encounter.
That first road trip bear
sighting is just one of many in a long list, which has led to my current categorization
of bears as ‘way scary’ and ‘critters to be avoided at all costs’ - just behind spiders and snakes. Another April is coming to an end, the snow
is melting, and that means the bears are coming out of their dens and will be
showing up in my yard again, any day. But
I love Alaska, in spite of bears. So I
will carefully sack my trash, look to make sure the path is clear when I go
outside, and if I cannot avoid being in my front yard when it is dark outside,
I will sing and make tons of noise to keep bears, and boogie men away. And I
don’t really care if my neighbors think I’ve lost it and yell at me to be
quiet. That’s why I live in Chugiak and
not Anchorage, no covenants out here – just try and sic a homeowners
association on me. And I checked, there
are no municipal regulations against singing loudly “Go Away Bear, I would
taste terrible,” - in fact, I’m pretty sure that I have a strong argument for
self defense. Happy Spring! And you all be careful out there.
