About 2 years Ago my family and I went to a favorite camping area in the Colorado rockies,to a place thats approximatly 20 miles north of leadville and at the eastern edge of a hi valley favored for camping by locals. The place we chose to camp this night was at the mouth of a canyon that opened into the vally and next to a small stream. We had seen some other campers in the area about a 1/2 mile into the valley so we beleive we were the only ones this far up on that thursday night. We set up our pop up trailer and had a camp fire going but retired right after dark to the trailor were the kids went to bed right away. My wife and I stayed up and read for a while until we grew sleepy. We had brought our dog on this trip and she curled up on the floor of the trailor as the lantern was shut off and everything went dark we settled in. It was not just a few seconds that went by when my wife and I both were startled as something hard brushed by the canvas right above and behind our heads from one end to the other as it passed by our camper. My wife frozen in fear wispered "did you hear that?Did you do that!?What was that!?" I anwsered yes I heard and we layed completly still and listened as it spun one of the kids bicycle pedals leaning up against the trailor as it passed by that, now on the other side of the trailor.
Im thinking to myself "bear", as we had seen a large bear the previous year rolling over boulders looking for grubs just the other side of this valley.
Our dog suddenly rose and started a low growling at the door of the trailor and then sniffed all around the cracks around the door all the while growling. I listened wishing Lucky(our dogs name) would just shut up and not provoke whatever it was out there to come in here!! A few minutes went by while the dog paced and growled nervously at the door when I heard a strange hi pitched, low volume growl return from outside on the far side of the fire pit. This went on for a while and then stopped and finnally after what seemed like hours we eventually fell asleep.
The next day we searched around the camp for signs of disturbance but could not find anything unusual. The ground around the camp was grassy and hard packed.We summed this up to be a bear.We stayed the next night and heard something moving around the camp but not as close as the night before. We left the next morning as this bothered us.
A few things we have thought about afterwords, If this was a bear, what passed by our heads the first night? It was above our heads and we were about 4 1/2 feet off the ground at that point. It was a sound very similar to a fingernail or something hard run across canvas or denim, and could not have been from hair or anything soft.
Yes there are deer, elk and moose that could have been the culprits but I never have heard any growl. Let alone such a low strange growl as this made. And I can always tell elk and moose are close becuase you can hear there heavy hoof falls on the ground wich we didnt hear. Besides the side of our camper that it passed by on was up against a tree and was only enough room for a person to pass by and I doubt an antlered elk could fit and definalty not a moose. Ive camped for many years here in the Colrado rockies and have not had an experience like this before and consider myself to be familiar with our local wildlife. Any ideas?
Posted on Aug 17, 2002, 10:34 PM from IP address 216.17.136.62