My pops and I have been working on cleaning up a huge slab of limestone on the property to be used as a bouldering rock. You can get an idea of the walls location in the above photo – it’s about where the valley ends and to the left of that last bush in the field. It seems like an extension of the house since it’s a short five minute walk and visible from the deck but it is definitely not. I was reminded of that yesterday.

Yesterday, as I was working on some bouldering problems I heard something moving around in the woods to the south, and very close, to me. At first I wasn’t readily concerned since I assumed it was just one of the coyotes that hunts in the field and figured s/he will just run away once he or she catches my scent. Or it could be a turkey, elk, or maybe the moose that was recently spotted. But then I heard some grunting sounds that came from the lungs of something rather large with, probably, sharp teeth. I quickly realized that we saw a black bear walk through the field the day before and spotted two of them on our driveway a few days before that. I simultaneously started making noise and assessing my climbing ability as a survival tool instead of a hobby. Luckily the bear did not approach me so I was allowed to climb in peace.

The incredible fact that I am able to walk a short distance from the house, basically staying on my extended backyard, to a huge bouldering wall (pictured above), and still have to deal with large predators does not escape me. It’s going to be very difficult for me to leave the CCR and move to Pullman.