Grizzly Encounter

Part of this weekend my daughter, Savannah Rose, and I got to travel to Bozeman, MT to a secluded mountain area called Mountain Top Ministries. We had an opportunity to spend time with some dear sweet friends we have not seen for a long time. One person traveled from California and another from Maryland this year. There were 9 in attendance and we had fun sharing memories and listening to new stories of our adventures for the last 10+ years.



I was only able to stay for one evening and went out to my van in the morning to find it had been under attack during the night. There was a mess of shattered glass everywhere -- inside the van and on the ground. Also, there was very little garbage debris on the ground in front of the van -- Cheese It Box and a couple of small plastic wrappers from Cheese Crackers.


It was obvious, my intruder to the van was a bear. Initial shock set in and it was not until my friends started helping me vacuum the glass and cover the window with some plastic, that we all realized just how big the surprise visitor had been. Only a little later did we hear from one of the caretakers, that a big silver tip grizzly momma bear had been seen around and had caused some damage to one of their buildings recently.


We all laughed acting like forensic specialists -- finding blood spatter and long hairs, following the trail of paw prints on the dusty van door and dirt path on the windshield of two vehicles.

While cleaning up the mess, I placed a call to my husband who replied, "Wonder what the insurance company will say to damage caused by a bear?" Another call I placed to my brother, who laughed and then said, "What year of van is that?" When I traveled my 3 hours back to Great Falls, he already had a window waiting with our shop vacuum. He found there is really more damage done to the door as it is termed "sprung", but for now the new window is in and the fragments are mostly removed -- more does seem to keep showing up inside the van.