ABC Wednesday--B is for ...

I was looking into my travel folders for some Bs, but then got sidetracked by my Dad's album.

B is for BEARS

These pictures were taken at Yellowstone in 1929. They had such a casual attitude toward the bears. I can't even imagine.

In the 1960s, I rode through Yellowstone with my folks. We came upon a traffic jam, and what causes traffic jams in Yellowstone? Bearwatching. In this case it was a mama bear with two cubs. And, oh-oh, the cubs were on one side of the road and mama was on the other.
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Now one of the biggest warnings about encountering bears or any wild animal is "Do not get between a mother and its young!" And here were a whole stream of cars in that very position.
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Mama Bear gave the kids a signal, and they were very well trained. Up the nearest tree they went. Cub One scooted up his tree, a sturdy pine with a trunk about a foot in diameter. He made it to safety twenty or thirty feet up and waited. He was the smarter brother.
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Cub Two headed quickly for the nearest tree and scooted right up.
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To the top.
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Since this was a very young sapling, the top was about twelve or fifteen feet above the ground.
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At least it was until it had a young bear in it.
Once Cub Two made it to the top, the top made it in a nice arch to the ground.
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How have you interpreted the letter B? To see others, go check out the ABC site, and be sure to give Mrs. Nesbitt a "Hi and thanks." She started us out on the ABC Wednesday trail a year and a half ago.
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Those travel Bs will find their way into another ABC post some time. And for our more recent encounter with a Bear, have a look back here last summer.