The morning is cool; I have my long shirt and rain coat on just to stay warm in the chill air. I see no evidence of a bear visit; perhaps I was just imagining stuff.

I retrieve the food pack, Skip joins me and we start breakfast. Bear! Skip sees a bear, and yells to scare her off; the kid is good! Skip says this bear was bigger. I didn’t see her, so I start walking the edges of the treeline looking for her. Yep; then I saw mama, about 25 yards in; she is much bigger than the other bear. We bang pots and yell… and she walks slowly away; she does not scamper like her nosy cub did.

Well, we woke Scott and Isaiah, and the presence of a persistent bears, one apparently taught by mama how to rummage for scraps, is beyond doubt now. Time to break camp! We ate quick, and split. We portaged back to Peterson, then to Baker.

Goofy observation: the bears saved our rainy day from boredom; once the cub showed up, we weren’t sitting around focused on the rain anymore.

Our goal was met: we enjoyed a short base-camping trip with our boys. Scott and I agree that our next trip with these boys will need to be more active; we’ll move from camp to camp with them.

OK, we encountered bears... and probably did some things right when doing so; I don't think I gave them any positive reinforcement (no easy food).