170. Shoot first

As a child I spent several late days of summer in Mammoth Lakes camping and fishing with my grandparents. Grandpa loved to fish and his patience never worn thin no matter how many fishing lines were reeled in empty - of everything including a hook. And if you fished, you learned to clean fish no matter your age.

When my grandparents died (my grandpa a few months after my grandma) we all got together at Lake Mary in Mammoth to spread their ashes in the creek that ran behind their favorite camping spot. Camping spot number 27 in Coldwater Campground. The week that the extended family spent that August in Mammoth at Lake Mary was necessary and healing. Our grandparents were our glue that kept us all together. We were all mourning and spending time doing what our grandparents loved - together - and this made the pain lessen.

As grandpa would have wanted, we did a lot of fishing. We started at the shore only to discover a bear would make rounds around late in the afternoon. She would saunter up to a fisherman, wait until they would back away in fear, pull up their stringer of fish, eat every last one, and then move onto the next victim. She continued this tactic as she circled the lake. Then she would disappear into the forest to sleep off the full belly and return to check out our cabin porch in the middle of the night to lick out our cooler or BBQ. On day one we were scared of her, but by the end of the week we found her antics charming.

This was 2004 and in the last six years we have told and retold the story of the bear at Lake Mary. On Sunday we returned to Lake Mary and hiked up to some of the higher lakes that feed into it. We walked along side a local and he updated us on our favorite bear. She continued her favorite afternoon laps around the lake and for a few years had a couple cubs that followed along after her. Last year in September she approached a man in this same manner. The man went to his car, retrieved a large caliber gun, and shot the bear dead.

I have been trying to make sense of this news for the past 24 hours. One of my happy memories is now tarnished by another act of idiocy by man. I don't believe it was an accident - the only reason he had a gun in Mammoth was because he was hoping he may be able to use it.