11/7-9/17 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

The drive over was beautiful. The leaves were down but there was fresh snow in the trees. The road was clear. I arrived at 12:40 and before I even put the truck in park, I saw a bear's footprint in the snow just to the left of the front tire. I got out and could see the bear's track going right up the upper roadway toward the cabin. There was about an inch or two of snow on the ground but I didn't know when it had fallen. The tracks looked very fresh.

I kept my eyes peeled as I brought the first load of my gear up to the cabin. Happily there were no signs of mice, or bears for that matter. There was a message from Earl on the phone which said they were about to leave for Palm Springs. I called him right away and caught him before they left. I told him about the bear tracks and he asked if I had any garbage outside. I told him "no". Little did I know. He said that the bear had been into people's garbage cans lately and was getting to be a nuisance. It's about time for them to hibernate but I don't want to run into a hungry bear desperate for a last meal for the season.

After starting a fire and hoisting the flag, I strapped on my .45 and went back to the truck to get the rest of my gear. I could see that the bear's track went past the cabin and up toward the old privy. When I got back, I had my lunch and my usual nap.

On Wednesday, the temperature outside was 25°. After breakfast, I wound another coil around the starter rope pulley and then re-assembled my chainsaw. Then I got the saw ready, strapped my .45 on, and took the saw up to the giant sequoia grove. There I bucked up 13 rounds from the big fir log that I have been harvesting for firewood. I cut 7 rounds from the big butt end up the hill, and 6 rounds from the smaller top on the other side of the trail. While I was up there, I saw that the bear tracks went right up my trail to the sequoia grove, but at the "T" between Dave and Bill, the bear went straight into the dense thicket. I didn't follow the tracks beyond that.

I took the saw back to the cabin and then went down to the truck to see if I could see where the bear had come onto the property. There was no snow on the ground under the trees, so I couldn't see the bear's trail. But while I was looking around, I saw something unusual on the bank of the creek 10 yards, or so, from the road.

On closer inspection it looked like a garbage pile that the bear had torn into. The "garbage" looked like someone's food stash. It was mostly non-perishable items like elbow macaroni, spaghetti noodles, lasagna noodles, lentils, rice, oatmeal, ramen noodles, etc. There was also a cottage-cheese size tub of catnip. The most prominent thing was about 20 feet of big plastic packing bubbles but they were all deflated. At first I thought the plastic was someone's ground cloth or tent, but instead it was a long narrow strip that wouldn't be useful for anything. All the packages had been ripped open or bitten through and the contents were strewn all over the ground. There were other weird items in the mix that gave me the impression that it was a young woman's food stash. I don't know whether she had stashed it there or the bear brought it in, but the bear definitely had torn it apart.

I got a heavy-duty garbage bag and picked up all the garbage except for the loose noodles and rice that were on the ground. Among the items were a business card from a scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and a clearly feminine sticky note pad. I kept those out.

Next, I took the wheelbarrow into the woods and wheeled all 13 firewood rounds down to the cabin and stacked them under the eaves. I think I now have enough firewood to last through the winter. If not, I can always buck up some more from that same log. There is probably 50 feet of it left. Before I went in for lunch, I split one of the big rounds just to see how easily it would split. I needed to use a sledge hammer for the first split, but after that it split pretty well. I took the wood inside to see how it would burn.

After lunch, I started a fire using the new wood and found that it burns pretty well as long as the pieces are sort of small. With the fire roaring, I had just started on my nap when Bill called. We had a nice chat and we caught each other up to date. When we hung up, I finished my nap.

Since I am done harvesting firewood for the time being, I went back to work on my baseboards. I selected a new 2x4 and cut and planed it to form the next baseboard section between Grids D3 and E3. I tried it for fit and it almost fit. I quit for the night without doing any more work on it.

On Thursday morning, Robert called first thing and brought me up to date on his activities. He said the log prices are still holding pretty high and he plans to start logging at Camp Serendipity in a couple weeks. When we hung up, Dave called and we had a delightful chat. When we hung up, I decided to call 911 to report the garbage dumping. I was given the non-emergency number and called that. I reported what I had found and the guy I was talking with said he would have a deputy keep an eye open in our neighborhood for trespassers and mischief makers. He said I didn't need to save the evidence.

After breakfast, I got the new baseboard to fit into its notch and I nailed it in place between Grids D3 and E3. Then I masked the floor with wide masking tape and varnished the first coat of Varathane on the baseboards from Grids B3 to E3. Then I had my lunch and left for home at 12:30.