This last weekend I got a motorcycle riding friend to go to Lassen Volcanic NP with me for a overnight camping trip. He had invited another guy, who had to stay home to babysit the dogs. Nice weekend, a breeze all afternoon, we had a campsite at North Summit Lake for Saturday night, a little sheltered from some of the wind. Quite a few sites were reserved, with no shows. I'm sure the wildfires in our area the last 6 weeks had something to do with it. Except for some light haze in the Lake Almanor Basin, the rest of the area looked and smelled great. After we exited the Park on Sunday late morning, a few miles past the south boundary, a bear materialized. I was going along on my bike about 50-55mph when out of the corner of my eye I see this young bear, a few years old maybe. Then flash, I was by it. No time to react, it was so close, if I'd seen it sooner, I could have stuck a leg out. My thoughts later, if I'd seen it sooner, I would have applied my brakes, which I'm sure would have caused me to hit it, whereas my speed sped me past it to where it passed behind my bike. I'm sure I burnt its nose hairs. My neighbor gets charged two weeks ago and now I almost hit one. Not the way I wanted to see a bear.
Duane