The Bear Incident There was this week when Theresa and Craig, two good friends of Brandon came to visit Ranger Creek. On Brandon's Birthday, they decided to go fishing at Shell Creek. They wanted to stay the night down there, just sleeping under the stars. Jessi joined them, so they got their horses and started their trip in the late afternoon.

For the rest of us, it was just a normal day at the ranch and when we went to sleep we wouldn't ever have thought about what happened later that night. I woke up around 3 or 3.30 am because I heard a noise but soon I fell asleep again. My mom and my dad, who were at the ranch for two weeks, woke up as well as they heard a truck going down to the wrangler's quarters. I woke up again when our door opened. It was Jessi. I was confused, why was she at the ranch. She shouldn't be here at all but down at Shell Creek. I asked her what happened, she was startled. "A bear" was all she first said and then she told me what happened and left again. Meanwhile my mom had talked to Brandon. Craig and Theresa were home too but Bill, Shane, Brandon and Jessi left again. Now here's the story: The four of them were fishing and having a good time. When they went to get some sleep, Baldy got scared. That was unusual and Brandon didn't know why. He tied Baldy up on another tree but after a short time, the horses got frightened again and Baldy ripped down the whole tree which fell down on his back. That was the time when all four of them heard that noise....They didn't see anything but they were pretty sure about what it actually was. So they left the horses and started to run away, four miles up to the ranch in the middle of the night.

Shell Creek

A couple of hours later, they went down again to get the horses. Thank heavens, nothing happened to them, except of Baldy who had a sore back. No-one was ever really able to explain what happened that night, if it was a bear or not, because they didn't find any footprints. But whatever it was, it almost scared our four friends to death.

Happy Trails