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Mount Rainier, in Washington State, is one of the beautiful National Parks in our country. Its 14,409 foot mountain peak stands in all its majesty, surrounded by evergreen trees and countless wild flowers and is a sanctuary for many wild animals. One summer, I volunteered with other college students to help develop a camping ground in the Ohanapecosh region surrounding the mountain. Sleeping on a "mattress" of pine needles beside a fresh-water brook was restful and invigorating. I was the cook and my "kitchen" was a pallet on the ground, low shelves for supplies and an old cook stove. Each morning I would climb up the slope from the brook to our outdoor "kitchen", cook the pancakes for our breakfast, then bang on a metal lid to wake our crew. One morning, as I arrived at the kitchen site, I found a brown bear nosing through our shelves. Without hesitating, I yelled at him. "Hey! Get out of our kitchen!" He was surprised but still determined. He grabbed a ten pound paper bag of flour between his teeth and tromped back to the surrounding trees and over the brook. When the campers arrived, I told them I had saved some of our supplies from a bear. They laughed. "What do you think? This isn't the Brooklyn Zoo!" (I had recently moved from Brooklyn, New York.) Then they saw the bear's footprints on the ground where he had dropped some flour. The Park Rangers will caution you not to try to befriend the bears in the park. But that morning, I had met a bear who knew what he was after and had no intention of leaving without completing his mission. Do you think he prepared pancakes in his den?
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