Lessons learned from solo camping with Luna the Bear. Spoiler... the Bear meets a bear!
On the night of August 30th, 2023 around 2am, I learned that if there is a bear outside our tent in the middle of the night, this is potentially the only time Luna knows how to be calm without goldfish or cheese stick support. While she is the sweetest, friendliest, most playful pup around, being calm isn't one of her strong suits.
That being said, Luna played it very cool and simply sat up, looked straight ahead (potentially seeing through the tent via her x-ray vision), and did not make a single peep.
Now, internally I am kiiiiind of panicking. What's going to happen? Is she going going to think it's a big friend? Is she going to get protective of me and try to bark? I think I left the big buck knife in the car...
But nothing happened. She just kept staring where the bear was, and made zero noise or movement. Just stood still and stared through the tent until the bear decided it was time to go explore someone else's campsite.
Then, just as casually as she sat up, after the bear exited the premises, Luna simply laid back down and drifted right back to sleep. Who’da thunk?
While this was initially alarming since this was her first bear encounter, and I wasn’t entirely sure how she would react given her love and excitement for all (and I mean ALL) animals, it definitely felt good to learn she is not going to increase my chances of being eaten when in the backcountry alone with her. In fact, it was a real plus having her there because it helped me adopt the philosophy of “if she’s not worried about it, I don’t need to be worried about it.”
Just as quickly as we were startled awake by a bear in camp, we promptly nestled back into our sleeping realms, envisioning all the adventures that awaited us tomorrow.