Sensing Danger

It's a well known thing -at least with my family- that I like to take pictures of the sunset and post them to the Social Medias just to show people. 

It was something I had started as a whim a few years ago. Kinda an instagram project where I was going to take a picture of the sunset everyday for a month.

It was supposed to be just a month. But I had enough positive feedback, especially from Mother Dearest, that I decided to continue doing the sunset pictures.

And after Mother Dearest passed....well I kept doing them. Taking time out of my day to go look outside and appreciate the beauty of wherever I was and the ending of the day.

Though these past couple of months...I've kinda fallen off the wagon. Mostly because I've been working more in the evening which means I'm not always outside at the right moment to take a picture of the setting sun....that or all the evening storms we've been getting have denied me any sunset pictures.

And I wasn't sure if I was going to make the effort to take pictures of the sunset while we were on vacation.

Mostly because like...we're in the mountains, but not quite at the 'top' of the mountain. So the sun disappears behind the tip far earlier than normal sunset time.

BUT. I discovered that if I went around the bend of our condo complex and climbed the hill a little bit. I could get a nice view of the sunset over Lake Tahoe. 

Which when you can actually see the lake (as it's been quite smokey out with all the fires burning around the state) it's quite pretty. 

So the past couple of evenings I've taken Kikay with me to go take sunset pictures. 

Mostly so I can get said sunset pictures. 

But it also gives us some breathing space away from the rest of the family to just have...well Sister Talk. Where we talk about everything and nothing.

And yesterday we ended up heading back to the condo before the sun had fully set. 

-Which is when we encountered that lady yesterday who later last night told us she'd nearly encountered a bear on the mountain the same area we'd been at earlier for the sunset pictures.....and then we later saw bears walking down the same path Kikay and I had walked down hours earlier to go check out the dumpsters in the parking lot of our condo.

So tonight.

We were a bit more alert when we went to take the sunset pictures.

Like. We weren't overally concerned because we'd been told that the bears didn't come out until nightfall. And it had been a bit after 10pm when we spotted the bear last night. 

But that didn't mean we weren't keeping an eye out as we settled on a flat rock on the hillside, watching the red sun set -and taking the occasional picture- as we vented about today's various frustrations....because our planned adventure of the day with the family didn't go...quite as planned. (not surprising) and we were just talking through things and enjoying Sister Bonding time.

And this time...we let the sun set.

Because we weren't that anxious to head back to the condos today. We were enjoying the peaceful nature and energy and sister bonding time.

And like the sun hadn't even been set for like 5 minutes when Kikay suddenly tensed beside me.

Which had me automatically tensing too. Like i jumped and totally went into the whole heart pounding adrenaline rush because I automatically knew something was wrong.

And Kikay was like "I saw something. It was big and black."

Big and Black? Automatic thought is Black Bear because well...that's what we'd seen yesterday. 

But at the same time she wasn't sure. "There was a lighter face and I think I saw hands come up. So it might have been a guy wearing a hoodie."

....We don't think it was a guy wearing a hoodie now. 

But in the moment we were like "Oh yah, it's probably a guy because the sun has only just set. The bears shouldn't be out yet." 

Still. We both had been spooked enough by what Kikay had seen. (As I didn't see anything, but at the same time I wasn't looking that hard as I wasn't expecting there to actually be anything.) That we quickly slipped off the rock we'd been sitting on and headed right back to the condo where we were sure we'd be safe. 

Probably a good thing we did....as apparently at dusk...the bears do come out.

Though it feels like...we saw different bears than last night.

Last night was a mother bear and her two cubs.

Tonight we saw multiple bears of various sizes. Only one cub with one bear. But a couple other single bears. Daddoo thinks we may have seen up to 5 different bears tonight wander by the dumpsters. :S

In any case.

Tonight the family decided to have a "Bear Party" where they would pop popcorn and sit out on the deck and watch for bears.

We weren't expecting to see anything for a while though.

After all last night the bears had come after 10pm.

But around like...9:20ish?

We saw the first bear at the dumpsters. 

And Kikay was like ()_() "Oh man...I think I may have actually seen a bear earlier." 

Because black bears...have lighter faces...and lighter pads on their paws.

So the "man in a black hoodie with lighter hands" totally was more than likely a bear.

And we saw the first bear leave...and then another come back...and then it leave...and then another come back....

It was cool...but at times rather intense.

Because like...some of the family decided to approach the dumpster after the bears had left....only for us on the balcony to shine a bright light on the hillside and see a bear just standing there between two trees looking down at the dumpster and the family members who were there.

And then while later standing on a car....Brother and Brother-In-Law may have had a Black Bear stalking them. As they were focused on watching the hillside when Brother was like "Hey....is that black patch darker than other black patches?" pointing to an area down hill from them and when Daddoo shined a light on Meralto and Bro-In-Law there was a black bear there.....like in a stalking position....but we couldn't tell if it was stalking the boys....or had sensed a Mama bear that was up on the hill as us on the balcony had seen something moving above...and we saw a bear cub climb up one of the trees before a mother bear came down...and she ended up Charging....and for one heart stopping moment I thought she was going to rush the Bros....but instead she darted after the Bear that had been stalking the Bros....

It was just. Intense. So intense. Like adrenaline rush all the way. 

I never would have thought we'd see bears here. And ones so close to civilization as well as this place is like...covered in Condos...so it's crazy to see Bears able to just...flit in and out and the only reason why we'd know they were in the area is the trail of garbage they leave behind from dumpsters not properly locked...or if you happen to be outside and looking in the right direction when they're come by. 

So. Crazy.

But note to self...if I go take pictures of the sunset tomorrow...leave before the sun sets. No need to take risks. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi