Chapter 2: Bear Valley
Full, high-resolution color images for Chapter 2: Bear Valley.
2.1: One of the cabins in which I lived as a youth.
2.2: My first bear encounter occurred during infancy when a bear investigated me as I was playing on our cabin porch. Although my folks never saw the bear, they saw its tracks.
2.3: Age 3, still rocking away (photo by Joyce Stringham).
2.4: Age 4, with my first sister, Christine, age 2, and our dog Chip (photo by Joyce Stringham).
2.5: By that time, grizzlies were rare in Colorado, but blackies were and are still abundant.
2.6: Map of California’s Central Valley and surrounding mountains. I first got to know bears on the western slope of the Sierra Range between Lake Tahoe and Yosemite (Getty image).
2.7: Dad fly fishing for trout.
2.8: Splash as the bear struck out, trying to catch a fish.
2.9: Capturing a trout, the bear walked ashore to devour it.
2.10: As a gymnast, my specialty was trampoline. Here I was landing a double-front flip (photo by Jeanette Stringham).
2.11: Shortly after the first black bear left, a larger one appeared.
2.12: The bear came back again.
2.13: Salmon which a bear had caught and brought ashore, then left while it chased another fish.
2.14: Salmon with ulcers on its flank from injuries while swimming upstream from the sea, or from fighting other males.
2.15: Blackie carrying a salmon ashore for lunch.
2.16: Blackie resting beside creek amid salmon scraps.