We made 7 miles the second day. I could not go another step and I didn’t care where the next shelter was. So my daughter tied a tarp to four little trees and we put our sleeping bags under it. I crawled in, and felt really comfortable until I noticed the “tarp” was the same pattern as the very expensive shower curtain I had hung up last Wednesday in the guest bathroom.

I had stashed, right beside my head, a few nocturnal necessities. I was dozing, when I heard the bear. Gnawing. Probably he’d discovered the tree with our breakfast and was having a healthful snack. Better him than me. Have you tasted the some of that stuff! But since the food wasn’t near the tarp I wasn’t worried. Until I heard Papa bear again. This time really close. But after the dogs had slept on me the night before, I knew I could go hours without breathing or moving, so I did.

Dawn broke and my daughter was up and ready to face the last few miles of our trek. As she was fixing our fabulous dried breakfast, she looked over to where I had been sleeping. ‘Mom, did you know a mouse has been nibbling on your toilet paper roll?’ She refused to believe me when I told it was a bear. A bear with very small teeth, okay?

Psalm 57:3 [God] reproaches the one that would swallow me up. God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.

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