FLUSHED THEM WITH HOME MADE MACE
Sitting in the family room at home, Foster City, thinking back on an experience, as a summer deputy sheriff of Tuolumne County, I had near Pinecrest Lake, CA, made me started to laugh.
It was the summer of 1976, and I was sitting in the ranger's office of the Stanislaus National Forest, drinking a cup of coffee and thinking what kind of day I will have during my shift, 6 a.m to 3 p.m.
A panic-report came in that campers have a big, brown bear traped high in a pine tree and they want a ranger. The ranger of the Pinecrest area asked if I could go and take the report for him since he's busy looking for a lost person near a campsite. "Yes." I said putting down my coffee.
When I arrived at the campsite, I saw a crowd standing near a big pine tree that was close to the river that skirted the camping area. I hurried over to the crowd to see what the excitement was all about. Looking up the tree, I saw two furry animals each sitting on a limb. The big, brown bears were to small cubs.
Meanwhile the a California fish and game warden drove up because he heard the report of what is going on over his car radio. "High! What are those big guys, at the bottom of the tree doing? " " They are throwing rocks to keep the bears in the tree." I said to the warden. When I told the warden, he said that he is going to give each guy a citation for teasing the animals.
All of a sudden, screams came from under the tree: These guys, who were throwing rocks, came running out from under the tree. They were solidly wet---from head to toe and smelled real bad. One was yelling, "My eyes are burning, my eyes are burning!" Several campers, who were standing by, quieted him down and washed out his eyes with water. The bears scampered down the tree and ran off.
What happend was that when these guys were throwing rocks, a bear let go with urin that hit one of the rock throwers in the eyes, and dowsed the other one. When we heard this, the warden said that he did not have the heart to cite these guys---the bears used their own kind of mace to take took care of their problem.
