I hate and fear bears. I had a three-bear-run-in vacation in Yosemite when I was a teenager, culminating with:

I'm in my little pup tent, with my cousin, asleep. I'm having a dream- a tree has fallen on the tent, and I can't sit up!! I wake up, and I can't sit up!! A bear is ON THE TENT, and has broken all the tent poles. I scream, loudly. It runs off, up a tree. Dogs in the campground go crazy. I ask my sister's husband (we're waiting for her to join us) if I can sleep in his tent. He says no. I spend the night in the concrete-with-a-door bathroom, and am scarred for life.

There are bears here, to the south, where I like to trail run. I don't like that, but I _really_ don't like the Grizzlies out west.

I probably shouldn't have read "Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance" or watched "Grizzley Man."

Nanci