Gimpy the Mother Bear and Her Four Babies Go Camping

Sindy Leah Cashman

Once upon a time there were four babies and Gimpy they decided to go camping at the same campsite as we did. My name is Sara and I went camping with my Mom and my older sister Jessica and my younger brother Connor and my baby sister Willow. We had set up our tents at Hickory Run State Park site 93 camping is so much fun we go every summer, but this year was the most exciting.

Mom and the four of us were having a great time camping we spent the day at the beach building sand castles with moats. Then when we got hot we splashed into the water and chased the schools of fish shimmering in the cool lake water and if you got lucky you could even see a tadpole, I love it when they are starting to grow there legs they look so neat I haven’t caught one yet they are really super fast I keep trying though.

Connor and Willow are little so they have to wear Swimmies and use floats sometimes. Mom even pushes them around on our big fish raft our Uncle gave to us at least until my big sister Jessica takes it to lay on in the water she’s a teenager she’s really long and angry. Sometimes she plays with us but usually she just has that mean angry face, oh well Mom makes her play with us anyway.

When we went back to the campsite we were so hungry. Mom made a fire she is amazing she built the fire and we helped wrap dinner in tin foil so we could cook it on the grill over the fire. Mom puts it on the fire we aren’t allowed because fire is dangerous and we could get hurt so while she is cooking we are in the tent with the big lantern coloring pictures we show to her through the tent wall they are see through. After dinner we made smores we get to roast marshmallows and make them with graham crackers and chocolate bars, which is my favorite part of camping.

We all helped Mom and Jessica put the food in the car we even picked up the marshmallows on the ground they were sticky and covered in dirt and pine needles gross. Mom said if we don’t the bears will come to our campsite to eat and marshmallows aren’t good for animals they should eat berries and things that are in the woods and absolutely no food in the tents bears have great sniffers and would smell anything in our pockets and everyone knows bears are very hungry.

Willow and Connor get tired fast so we sang some songs and got ready for bed. I could stay up all night but we all have to go in our tents to get the babies to sleep, except Jessica she gets to stay up and watch the fire she says it’s the best part of her day.

As we lie in our tents you can see the flickering colors of light bouncing off the tent you can even see shadows. Then the babies went to sleep so Mom put on the flashlight so I could make shadow puppets. I can make a dog and a butterfly. I was starting to go to sleep so we turned off the flashlight and snuggled under the blankets I remember watching shadows moving outside our tent probably just Jessica walking around so I went to sleep.

Next thing I hear Jessica is yelling Bear! Bear! Bear! Mom told her to stay away from it and she left the tent we stayed inside. They were shining the flashlight on the bear who was trying to get into our car we forgot to close the windows and bears have good sniffers. The bear was taller than the car we could see the bears long nose and little ears. Mom had read in a pamphlet the park ranger gave us to yell at the bear to scare it away, they were yelling but the bear just looked at them. Then they saw another bear on the other side of the car. Now we were getting scared the marshmallows were in there if they eat them no more smores.

Jessica and Mom started yelling for help the bears weren’t leaving and now there were more of them. They are so cute though, they were so black and shiny they look just like teddy bears it was sad to see them getting yelled at. I know Mom was just trying to scare them so they would leave not knowing if they were angry bears or not. Hard to believe that Jessica couldn’t scare them she yells all the time. After a few more minutes the bears started moving off the car I don’t know if they were scared they didn’t look scared I think they just didn’t want to be where it was so noisy. As the big bear lumbered away she was limping and she had four little bears following her. There were five bears they all walked across the road and climbed up a hill into the woods.

A Park Ranger pulled up in his truck just as the five bears went into the woods. He asked if everyone was Okay, we were. He asked us if one of the bears were walking funny, we said yes. Then he told us that we had met Gimpy she was a mother bear she had four babies two she had just had this year one from last year and she had adopted a bear cub. So there were five bears he said they were going home they go down to the ravine below our campsite and follow the stream home. They probably wanted a snack before going to bed she is very nice and never gives anyone any problems but there is a snooty bear on loop C that is another camping area I’m glad we didn’t meet snooty bear.

The Ranger said he would keep an eye on them and we would be safe so we could go back to sleep. Remember he said all wildlife needs to be respected always use caution around animals and give them plenty of space. They can get scared too. So we went to sleep and the next morning we had to pack up and go home I really hope to see Gimpy again with her four babies her family is just as big as ours. I didn’t mind sharing the campsite with Gimpy but next time we will remember to close our car windows.

The End

Good Night Little Ones