Bear, javelina, deer, and more…

Too hot to ride today, folks.   It’s 97 degrees out there right now, and that’s a notch or three above my comfort zone.   Maybe if it cools off a bit later I’ll take the Baja Blaster up for a run in the mountains, and you can bet I’ll keep my eyes open for bear.   We actually get them around here, although I’ve never seen one.   The Boss sees them all the time around his place (he’s closer to the mountains they we are).

You saw the video on the blog a few days ago…a motorcyclist in Canada actually tagged a bear doing about 87 mph.   (The bike was doing the 87 mph, not the bear.)   I wondered if that ever happened before and quick Google search showed me that it did…in New Jersey (of all places) in 2010.   I grew up in New Jersey and I never saw a bear.   I guess there are bear back there, though.  I remember a few years ago when a bear walked through a McDonald’s drive-up in New Jersey quite close to where I used to live.  I called my buddy Mike (who lives in New Jersey) to ask if he had seen it…he laughed and told me he sent his wife out to the woods behind his house to look for it.   You guys remember Mike…he rode with us not too long ago up on Glendora Ridge Road…

If I ever did tangle with a bear on the California Scooter, though, it would sure make for a good story.   If I go looking for them, you can bet I won’t spot one.   If I’m not, they may just pop up.  We’ll see what happens.

When I was a lot younger, I hunted for javelina several times and you can guess how that went.  We never saw a single javelina.   While staying at a lodge on vacation with my family, though, I walked outside our cabin and we were surrounded by a small javelina herd.  I grabbed this photo late at night with an old Minolta film camera…

I didn’t even know that mama javelina had a baby with her until I saw the photo, and folks who have seen it told me it was a dangerous spot to be in.   They told me that when javelina arch their noses or make the hair on their backs stand up it is a warning they are mad.   Not that it would have mattered to me that evening.  It was literally pitch black outside and I couldn’t see much.   I could hear the javelina moving around.  My Minolta had a flash on it (it was a older manual focus camera).  It was too dark to focus, so I just shot a series using the flash and twisting the focusing ring a little bit each time. I figured one of the shots would be in focus, and that’s what happened.  It’s the photo you see here.

And you know what?  The next time my buddies and I went hunting for javelina, we didn’t see a single one.

I had the same luck on a wild boar hunt in central California the following year.  The only thing I got was a good case of poison oak.   Wow, did that ever itch!

Things just work out that way for the animals’ benefit, I guess.   It happened again yesterday.   I took that new Weatherby out to the rifle range yesterday and wouldn’t you know it…two deer walked right in front of us like they owned the place.   While we were shooting!  You would think all that booming and thundering would have scared them away.   Nope.   The rangemaster called a ceasefire, we waited about a half hour for them to wander away, and they finally did.  The deer are pretty hard to see in this iPhone photo, but trust me, they’re in the field of view.   And yes, I know deer season starts next month.

Well, that’s if for now, folks.   I’ll be back on the Blaster as soon as it cools off.   I’ll probably spot all kinds of wildlife when I do so.   Don’t worry…I’ll have my camera with me.