by Rex Trulove

Created on: May 14, 2010

Crater Lake National Park has always had a large black bear population. They pose little threat, but sometimes there are unintended encounters that in hindsight are rather humorous.

The man's name was Ben, and on that day, he was charged with the duty of putting wood in the various campsites in the park. While it is manual labor, this is fun work, as the person is driving a big pickup from one site to another, stacking some wood, then moving on to the next. It takes most of a day to do this.

Ben decided to take a break a little after noon, in the campsite he was working in at the time. The day was warm and enjoyable, and he rolled down the windows a little, and then settled back to enjoy a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some grapes. He had a thermos of coffee, but on such a nice day, it didn't seem appropriate. With half the sandwich eaten, he decided to go get a thermos cup full of ice cold and fresh water.

He laid his meal in the seat next to his open lunchbox, and knowing better than to leave the door open with so many birds and squirrels around, he shut the door, and headed across the campground to the water faucet. Bears were definitely not on his mind.

However, as much as bears love honey, they also love peanut butter and sweets in general. They also have a great sense of smell. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich might as well be a big flashing neon sign saying, "I am here! I am here!”

Therefore, while Ben was getting his water, a bear came along, lured by the smell of the food. The windows were only down a little bit, so Mr. Bear could only get his nose in far enough to confirm that the food was in the rig. No problem, though, because bears are enormously powerful. He merely reached up and ripped the passenger door off its hinges, climbed up into the seat, and proceeded to help himself to the sandwich and grapes.

Ben, returning with his water and simply enjoying the day and looking around, never even saw the bear. He opened the driver's door and sat down. Still not looking, he set his water down and reached over to get his sandwich. Only, his hand encountered the backside of a full-grown black bear.

He looked over, and in understandable terror, screamed. The bear, startled, looked back at the same time, and the scream scared him. Though the door on that side was lying on the ground, the propensity of a bear is to climb when they are frightened. In a flash, the bear went through the roof of the pickup, literally, while Ben moved about as fast out of his open door.

It is still hard to say who was more scared, the bear or the man, though it is quite probable that Ben had to make a quick trip home to change his pants. Still, the result was a pickup missing a door and with a big hole in the roof. Normally, he would have gotten in trouble for causing damage to a park service rig, but when he told the story, corroborated by statements by tourists, the response was bellows of laughter.

After that, Ben switched to spam sandwiches. Nobody had the heart to tell him that bears are omnivorous and like spam, too.

The story is true, and Ben went on to become a supervisor at Crater Lake. He is no longer alive, and the bear almost certainly isn't either after all these years, however the old timers who were there at the time, still laugh about the event at the site affectionately referred to now as "Ben's campsite".

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