Dogs and bears

Laurel, Maryland
39 06.193 N 076 51.354 W

What an abrupt cultural change!  This morning we woke up in our camp site on The Blue Ridge Highway.   It was silent and cool.  The only sound was that of the morning bird songs.  The only concern was to avoid the bear.   Two hours later we were driving on the Washington D.C. beltway in rush hour traffic.  Man oh man how stressful that was for a couple of sailors.

I'm afraid that last night was our last night in a tent on this trip.  Today and tomorrow we are attending a Westsail Rendezvous on the Chesapeake Bay.   After that, we drive back to Dave and Cathy's house in Zebulon, NC where we started 5 months ago.

We are staying in a motel in Laurel, MD for two nights.  That is the closest affordable room we could find.   Rooms in the neighborhood of the rendezvous were listed for $560/night!!!  Even camping nearby was super expensive.  Here in Laurel we are right in the back yard of NSA.   Given my anti-government sentiments, I'm sure that they are looking over my shoulder at this very minute.

Anyhow, a parting story on the camping.   We made friends with two couples in adjoining camp sites.  They were on one side of the road and we were on the other.  Both had been there for more than a week.  Both couples told us that the bear visited their sites every night and nosed around.  (This bear did not nose around our tent.)   That kept them awake at night, especially the young couple in a tent.  But that is only half the story.

The young couple also had two dogs.  One was a small boxer, the other was a gigantic Great Pyrenees.   Think of a white Newfoundland dog.  The dogs slept in the tent with their owners.  The people told us that every night the dogs never woke up when the bear came around.  That is surprising.  Every dog we ever owned would be on high alert and ready to bark as the slightest alien noise or smell from nearby.   I wondered what would happen if the dogs did wake up, and then went crazy because of the bear.  A small dog would probably not scare the bear.  He would just kill it.   But what about if the dog was as big as the bear or even bigger?   If the big dog attacked the bear to defend its masters, the bear would no doubt win.  But the bear would also become enraged and all pumped up on adrenalin.  Might not the bear then be likely to attack the people?   I don't think I would want that big dog sleeping in the tent with me.

We didn't see that bear, but driving out of the park this morning we did see another bear crossing the road.  That makes three bears we've seen along the highways on this trip.  One in New Mexico, one in Ontario, and one in Virginia.  The New Mexico bear was by far the biggest of the three.