July '05


Dan, Brett, and myself drove up, trailering my boat and Dan's canoe, to celebrate their birthdays.

We had a good time, but the sailboat didn't make it into the water for lack of wind. Fortunately we had the canoe.

We spent one night at Camp Richardson, Brett and I in a tent and Dan in his camper.

Here is Dan's story of the following morning:


The Bear Guy

Gary, Brett, and I went to Lake Tahoe to celebrate my 50th and Brett's 12th birthday. When we arrived it was starting to get dark. I headed off to the information desk while Gary and Brett set up their tent. When I returned it was dark so we started playing cards. We were sitting in the camper late at night just wrapping up the third and final game of crazy eights. Gary asked me to wake them up early.

I said it would probably be about 7am. "Good", he said, "We can get going early."

After the game, Gary and Brett slipped out the camper door and headed for their tent about 20 yards away.

The next morning I woke up even earlier than expected and decided it was a great chance to scare the crap out of Brett. I went over to the tent and proceeded to do my best bear imitation, snorting and scratching around the perimeter. Finally I get to the door and start to unzip the fly. I hear the faint voice of a boy inside, "what is that?" Then the top of the fly unzips from the inside, two eyes peer out at me and a man's voice answers - "it's just the bear guy".

Then I freeze, "that's not Gary!" I quickly mumbled, "oh sorry - wrong tent" and dove into the adjacent - correct - tent. They woke up VERY quickly as I retold the story. We laughed about it the rest of the day.

From that day on, those people tell the story of the "Bear Guy" of Camp Richardson, Lake Tahoe, Ca.


Check out this video clip of the canoe trip to Emerald Bay.