Aug 15, 2010

Lucie Meets a Bear - Our Vacation Continues

On Thursday, July 22 after taking a quick tour of Telluride, we headed back to Ridgway.


Even the ride back after the trails was beautiful! We passed the Double RL ranch on the way back, owned by single RL Ralph Lauren, sorry no pix we passed by too quick.


 As we reached to top of the mesa where our house is located, we were welcomed by the local deer once again.




 Lucie just loves deer now.
(with potatoes)



 This deer was near the driveway to our house.

We arrived home at about 4 p.m. and opened up the doors to both decks to let in the fresh mountain air. I swear I could sit on our deck for hours and never tire of the scenery. Lucie discovered how much fun running back and forth between the two decks could be. Seems there was always something new to watch.

The night before while I was sitting on the deck after darkness had fallen, I could hear the roar of our local Black Bear. The longer I sat out there and listened to him, the closer the sound of his roar became.

 With as dense as the woods are, who knows how close he could have been.
(Ridgway police: we traced the roar, it's coming from inside the house!)

Actually, the next day we saw "Yogi was hear" carved into our garage door.  The fact that he used 'hear" and the well known fact that bears are horrible with homophones verified his identity and lead us to believe we had a full-on bear infestation.



Later in the evening, Ron headed to Ridgway to pick up some supplies and dinner.
  Then we relaxed with dinner on our deck.


 


 
After dinner, Lucie and I headed outside to explore the cliffs around our house.We found this little fellow waiting for us right outside of the garage as soon as we opened it.

I have no idea what kind of bird he was but he allowed us to get real close to him. He was not afraid at all so I showed him and taught him a valuable lesson.  Beware the hand of man!!!  Just kidding, I threw rocks at him till he flew away ;)

 After a quick look at him, it didn't look like he was hurt so we continued on our way. By the time we came back from our walk he was gone.  I suspect he was a victim of the packs of bears that roam the mountain at that time of the day.

This is our view from the cliff behind our house. We had to be very careful when walking around because of the cacti and plummeting 900 foot fall that could be taken by stepping wrong.



As you can see there is no grass in the area so we always took Lucie for a walk around the neighborhood to do her business (She's an accountant).


 The neighborhood is always so quiet and peaceful. 


At the end of Lucie's walk, as we were heading up the street we noticed a large black animal stumble upon the road. From a distance all we could see was that it was huge and covered in black fur. We knew that there was a Black Bear in the area but just couldn't make out what it was. I had forgotten to take my camera with me on this particular walk. Just my luck.

(Here is a picture that I had taken a different day to show you where we were and the location of the animal.)

In order to get back to our house we needed to go up the paved road and then turn down our dirt road. Our house was the last house on the dirt road so we were not close to it at all.  To do this, we needed to walk toward the animal. As we started to walk up the paved road the animal began to walk toward us. We decided to take a short cut to our dirt road through a wooded hill. Apparently, the animal was familiar with the area and was already headed in our direction down the dirt road once we reached it. At this point I am focused on Lucie when my husband says to me "get going!" The animal is now running after us and I am terrified at what could happen. Ron hands off the garage door opener to me like it's an Olympic torch and Lucie and I sprint to the house with Ron not too far behind. 

Now, sprinting typically isn't very difficult, but at 8,000 feet I was huffing and puffing like I was going to fall over! Who am I kidding, it would have been just as hard if I was still in Texas, I'm not in shape! Once we were in our garage, we jumped in the FJ and took off down our dirt road curious to see what was chasing us. As we drove down the road we saw the animal standing on the road. As we approached, the animal disappeared into the trees. We then hear a ladies voice yelling "Bella". We pulled into a driveway where we heard the voice coming from and we met Bella.


 (Not actually Bella since I had forgotten my camera.)

Bella is a two year old Newfoundland. I could hardly stop laughing at the fact that we were being chased by a gentle giant! We visited with Bella's owner who was very sweet and a pleasure to speak with. Bella was just gorgeous and full of energy. She typically wears a bell so that her owner knows where she is but it broke and she had not replaced it yet.

When you look at a Black Bear and Bella from a distance there are similarities.



Thankfully, we met Bella instead!



This beautiful sunset was the perfect ending to our day.




What amazing adventures will we have next?



Coming Soon - Lucie the Mountain Hiker Explorer

24 comments:

  1. You didn't happen to have a picture of Remington to show Bella didya? She would have fallen in love then you would have had to take her to Minnesota.

    Bobo and Meja

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  2. What a cool place to have a house! I would be scared of bears though. Bella looks nice. Maybe Lucie can play with her.

    love & wags,
    River

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  3. What can I say but beautiful photos as always.

    Elizabeth & Luna

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  4. I too love deer with potatoes :)

    Don't forget, we moved to http://dogisgodinreverse.com/

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  5. What an adventure! We laughed so hard about Bella :) And the birdie sure was cute. Can't wait for the next adventure!!

    Kisses,
    Emma Rose

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  6. What a lovely place to take a rest.

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  7. It is very beautiful there. But I am terrified of bears...eek! Glad you met Bella and not Mr. Black Bear.

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  8. Thank doG it was Bella and not a bear!
    What gorgeous pictures you took!

    Love ya lots
    Maggie and Mitch

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  9. Ha, Ha, Ha!!!! Everyone knows that Newfies are big teddy bears!!!!!!

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  10. hihihi i think you did have fun with Bella.We have a dutch song lieve bella beer or sweet bella beer,So i can understand this mistake.
    byebye,Lean [great pictures].

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  11. Yikes...you had me worried for a minute. Meeting Bella was much nicer than meeting a bear for sure. Beautiful pictures!

    Woofs and Licks,
    Maggie Mae

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  12. That was brilliantly told and the photos are great.
    So glad your stalker was Bella..:)

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  13. In love with your pictures - what an amazing view you have....glad to follow and keep up with your new adventures :)

    We have that moment of "what was that black thing on the side of the road/forest!" quite often as wildlife biologists.....no matter how many times it happens and whether or not it turns out to be a bear, it always gets your heart racing!

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  14. We have been reading all your adventures and sounds like a real fun and scary trip!! We laughed a lot when we saw your bear!

    Don’t forget to hop on over to my blog for the Give-A-Way! You could win a custom made dog collar just for YOU! You even get to pick the fabric and style. All you have to do is leave me a comment and get an extra entry by also telling me what your favorite fabric is or by posting about it on your bloggie! It’s that easy peasy for 3 chances to win!! I hope you will play with me!! Good luck!

    Licks,
    Kylie

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  15. What beautiful pictures! And, of course, what great stories to go along with them!

    Pat
    www.critteralley.blogspot.com

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  16. Just in case you're curious, that bird was a Pygmy Nuthatch. We have them all around our house. They're so cute and little!

    I see the similarities between Bella and the Bear! It's amazing how often our smallish black lab gets mistaken for a bear cub by other hikers. I guess that they have bears on the brain - kinda like you and me!

    We were in the same area quite recently so those mountain photos look familiar! Looking forward to more stories!

    BTW, I heard from a ranger while we were in the San Juans that there had been a 3 wk period of almost constant rain (morning and afternoon, very unusual). I hope that you missed that nasty weather!

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  17. I agree with our friends Maggie and Mitch-your pictures are gorgeous! Lucky you to have such great views!

    Your buddy,
    Bocci

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  18. hehe...we are glad your hunter was not a bear!

    Beautiful photo's, this looks such an amazing trip. We look forward to the next instalment. :)

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  19. What a great adventure you all had!!!

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  20. Beautiful pictures!!! Mommy would love someday to see sunsets like that.

    Bleea is kida cute but way too big!!

    {{{huggies}}}....Mona

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  21. Great photos and I loved the Bella story. I would be very scared if I met a bear, or a Bella, cos I'm only little...and my Mum's not very brave really.

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  22. wow! that was a scary story. we were really afraid that you were going to be eaten by an evil bear! then when we saw Bella, we laughed and laughed. that was so funny.

    those a beautiful photos that you took. what a wonderful trip that you got to go on.

    woofs.

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  23. Wow! What beautiful pics you have - especially of all the gorgeous wildlife...that birdie was awfully trusting! I'm always amazed at the adventures you can have while walking your dog. It's so nice to hoof it sometimes, slow down and get back to basics. Can't wait to see some more!

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  24. What a fun story that took place over a couple of days time! Lucie has the most beautiful face. I think I love her! Evee would be jealous so I have to keep it under wraps. She reminds me of our beloved Daisy who passed away from Lymphoma way too early. That Newf story cracked me up! I know you felt dorky finding out you had been scared by a Newfie, but at the same time, very understandable why!

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