On to Lake Tahoe

[Kyle]After Mindy et al in Utah, the next family member for us to visit was my brother Darren - but first we'd have to get to California, and on route we decided to take a stop over in Lake Tahoe which was directly on route. The drive took us through a whole lot of nothing, which is to say Nevada. Now I'm sure Nevada has many interesting things to do, but we were on I-80, so we didn't see any of 'em. By the way, what's with the twenty-five mile long construction zones that consist of four thousand traffic cones waiting in the dirt off the side of the road, two workers on one end and a 45mph speed limit the whole way?

Another blur of scenery as we head West. Our road trip so far has had us enter 13 different USA states

At the far end of this drive, we took a winding mountain road over a pass and the jewel of Lake Tahoe spread out before us.

We crossed the border into California and located our accommodation for the night.

I must say, it was a bit underwhelming when compared to the listing. It turned out to be one of those motels with the door and window both facing the parking lot. This gives a choice between living in a very public fishbowl or a private cave. At least it was clean and the woman who checked us in was super nice.

We were a few minutes early. While we waited for our room to be ready, we ate at a place that was billed as "amazing", but was in reality just not too bad.

Afterwards, we decided to work off our meal with a short walk in the mountains above the town. "Above" was important. I used to be pretty well acclimated to altitude, what with growing up in the mountains and then spending a career in the low atmospheric pressure of an airplane cockpit. Now, not so much. The last time we did a hike anywhere near this altitude was when we descended from Mt. Whitney more than seven years ago. The atmospheric density here is about three-quarters that at sea level. Every time the path sloped up even a little, we felt it instantly.

Arriving mid-afternoon gave us time for a walk to the local Lake Tahoe lakefront and up the mountain trails of Kings Beach

Add to that that we still did our usual thing of pushing past one turn-around point after another in pursuit of the view around the next bend or over the next ridge. By the time we had finally made it back to our motel room, it was getting dark and we were tired enough that even the cave seemed appealing.

The motel bed was actually quite comfortable. We awoke in the morning eager to go further afield. We spent the whole day driving the 68-mile perimeter road, stopping at various trails and viewpoints along the way. We even managed a stop at a nice Mexican restaurant where we were pretty sure we were the only patrons with English as a first language.

The following day we drove all around the lake enjoying various hikes and scenic views

At the motel, unlike the previous night when the place was full, this time we appeared to be the sole occupants.

Half asleep in the middle of the night, I heard what sounded like people moving into the adjacent room. Why, I thought, would the motel put the only two sets of occupants in rooms right next to each other without a buffer?

Then I heard a short toot from a car horn. After a second, I thought it kind of sounded like ours. I got up and pulled back the curtains to see our rental car with all four doors wide open and some of our stuff nearby on the ground.

"Maryanne," I said, "someone's in our car!" It was cold outside and I fumbled for something to put on.

Maryanne woke up quickly (she does that). She opened the door and started yelling, "Hey! Get the &%# out of our car!!"

That's when two furry heads popped up from behind the car. The miscreants had been a pair of bears - a bear pair if you like.

They looked at her and then started to slowly saunter off with no sense of urgency. After all, what were we going to do, chase them?

The car break-in was a couple of hungry, local, black bears - Yikes

I had a look at the car. Mostly, they had scooped the food that was inside onto the parking lot, where it was easier to eat. There were a few places where they had slobbered sticky slobber on the windows and door handles. The main damage was where they had chewed through all three rear seat headrests, clawed one of the split seats and ripped through the parcel shelf to get to the trunk.

I moved anything left in the car that may smell like food into our room, although I knew there was still sugary bear spit all over the place. Hopefully the scent coming from the car would appeal less than what remained outside.

The parking area was such a mess. We had no cleaning supplies beyond a couple of wet washcloths, so we could think of no way to clean it up without tracking the gooey mess into our room. The best we could do was kick the scattered mess into a pile.

It wasn't long before the bears returned to rifle through what was left. Knowing there wasn't anything left that we could do, and that we also had a long clean-up and drive ahead of us later, we tried in vain to get back to sleep.

Of course, that didn't work. There were two BEARS right on the other side of our door. They tried the door handles and when that didn't work, they leaned up on the car and started rocking it back and forth. We were worried because we had read that they are strong enough to peel back door frames if they really want to get in. So far, all of the damage was limited to the upholstery. We did NOT want to have to add body damage to the mix; we did our best to deter them.

They gave up after a while and then moved on to the other two cars in the lot. After checking all four doors on the first car using their curved claws as easily as if they were human fingers, one of them opened the driver's side door on the motel manager's truck and then started rooting around.

Groan.

Well, I can't ignore that. I opened the motel room door and the other bear was standing right there. YIKES! I slammed the door shut and then leaned into it to make sure the latch caught. Thaaaat's what the peepholes are for! It would not be good if a bear made it into our room.

After a minute or so, the bear by the door moved off to the other side of our car. I decided that was my chance to go confront the bear in the manager's truck. I'm 100% sure that was my first time ever approaching a bear while looking over my shoulder to see if the other one is following me.

When I got to the manager's truck, I knocked on the passenger side window and made faces at the bear inside. It looked at me briefly like I was an idiot, for some reason, and then slowly backed out and wandered up the parking lot. It headed toward the street with all the enthusiasm of a loiterer being told to move on by a trainee security guard. I went around and slammed the door somewhat loudly, hoping the noise would summon reinforcements. It didn't. The bear occasionally looked back, not so much to look at me, but to make sure it's other half was aware of the new exit route past the annoying human.

The second bear sauntered past, looking groggy like it really just wanted to lie down and take a nap. It looked so benign and fluffy, or in this case, half fluffy and half sticky. It occurred to me that I would rightfully be very nervous letting a loose Rottweiler pass that close to me. Bears can outrun Rottweilers and are apparently more short-tempered. I decided to keep the manager's truck between us until it was well on its way.

We're not really sure what happened there. The food in the car was our fault. We had taken it off the boat when we left, knowing it would not last the winter, and not wanting to attract critters to make a home aboard while we were gone. We figured we would use it up or get rid of it before we leave North America. All the bear-proof trash cans in the town should have given us a clue. Honestly, I figured a locked metal car would be more secure than the bear canisters we used on the High Sierra Trail.

Why the car was unlocked is a bit of a mystery. Maryanne and I have a procedure between us where whomever is the driver locks the car and then the other one verifies it. It's possible we both forgot, but I'm suspicious of the electronic locking mechanism . On a couple of occasions, when Maryanne and I locked the car and then stayed in the immediate vicinity, it would unlock itself after a few minutes as if it thought we were still inside and hadn't yet exited. It would also do the opposite thing if we unlocked the car and then didn't get in immediately. It happens more often than rarely when the locks are opposite of what we expect. Perhaps the key fob in our room was close enough to the car parked just on the other side of the door that it didn't stay locked all night. A good ol' mechanical lock would be a little more reassuring. At least it didn't start the engine so the bears could take a little joyride. {Maryanne: Most likely we just both forgot to be sure it was locked}

When we checked out and told the manager about the events of the night, he didn't seem surprised. A little heads-up would have been nice when we arrived, buddy; a few signs around the place perhaps?.