Adventures of traveling the pacific coast highway- Pt. 1 Smores

I just found a company, Trusted Tours & Attractions, that offers popular sightseeing tours and vacations online. I read that you could win a hand held GPS just by signing up for their online newsletter so I signed up and began browsing their available tours. I found a tour of San Francisco that reminded me of a previously insane trip we took there, here is the story:

A trip up the pacific coast highway-

We were on the way to San Francisco and were making a week long trip so we decided to try and save some money by camping out in various places along the way, plus N had never been camping before.

So we gathered our supplies, borrowed a gun from a family member and headed on our way. The first night was nice and low key. We camped outside of LA in the mountains. On the way to our camp sight we read various warnings along the road about some spotted bear and her cubs, it was camping so wildlife is to be expected right? We continued on our way up the mountain to our camp site. Before arriving at out site we checked in with the ranger station and asked about the bear. They said our camp site was many miles away from the area the mama bear and cubs were spotted and that as long as we put our food and trash away we would be fine.

So we arrive at the camp site, set up our tent and get the fire going. We had a nice time together playing cards, talking and enjoying the fresh air and the fire. After we had dinner and smores for dessert we started to gather up our food and trash so we could lock it up in the car. We didn’t want to attract any animals to our camp site. N made me unload the gun and I slept with it and the bullets under my pillow (I have been camping before and know that protection is sometimes necessary). Anyway at about 2 am we wake up to the sound of the camp site dumpster lid flinging open, something was rustling through the trash. It was something big because it was throwing trash out of the dumpster and onto to asphalt road around the dumpster, besides the trash had one of those animal proof locking devices on it. Was it a homeless person living in the forest?

Our camp site was within 50 yards of the dumpster so we were wondering what was going on and if they/ it would come to our site next. After several minutes of trash rustling and throwing we started to hear the crunch of foot steps coming towards our campsite. Now I sit up and start fumbling for the gun and bullets, I want the gun loaded in case for some reason we need to use it. I also motioned for N to keep very still and quite, if it was an animal the last thing we needed to do was give it reason to attack.

At this point we are full of adrenaline and it seems as though our hearts are beating right out of our chests. I get the gun loaded and the side of the tent begins to push inward in the shape of a snout… we hear sniffing and heavy breathing. Now I am sure it’s a bear and I notice the plate of smores sitting right inside the tent door! Great, a bear is sniffing the side of our tent and we have smores inside!

Now the gun we borrowed was a revolver, yes a dinky revolver! A revolver will not stop an angry bear, it will only make it more angry unless you manage to shoot it’s eye or something like that… Anyway, I am totally freaked by this point, gun in hand praying that the bear moves on. We are still dead silent.

A couple of sites away some dogs begin going crazy barking and carrying on, are more bears coming or do the dogs only sense this one at our tent? Luckily the bear becomes more interested in the other camp site and stops sniffing the side of our tent. We hear the crunch of foot steps and the bear moves on.

We weren’t able to fall back asleep that easily after the episode and did not leave the tent till the sun came up. I was so upset about him bringing the smores into the tent after we went through ALL the trouble of locking up the food and trash. I did however get to keep the gun loaded the rest of the night!