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Orange County Nature Writing |
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A literary celebration of the natural beauty of this place |
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All photos by Thea Gavin unless otherwise credited. Web site created by Thea Gavin (who should perhaps stick to making compost). ©2008 ocnaturewriting.com. Last update 8/24/08. |
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Moccasin John’s departure left just two grizzlies to rule Old Saddleback: the Little Black Bear and her white-faced mate. Surprised by deer hunters while sunning himself in a clearing in the chaparral, Old White Face took a bullet at 400 yards and left a blood-trail through the manzanita— only one more round was needed the next morning.
For seven years the Little Black stayed hidden, wary of man, with all the wilderness to hide in: from the San Mateo to the south all the way to Fremont Canyon’s caves . . . a honey raid a couple times a year, a hunter’s campfire story of a sighting. Her range diminished. At the end of 1907, Trabuco Canyon— named for a Spanish soldier’s lost blunderbuss— became the scraggy bear’s last larder. Ed Adkinson ranched here, and Andrew Joplin. Like all the canyon families (and their dogs) they kept a lookout for the Little Black Bear.
Her taste for sweets proved her undoing as she got regular in her raids and made a trail. Adkinson and Joplin rigged a bear trap chained to a two-foot piece of railroad iron. The next morning the whole thing had disappeared. Five miles over rocks and through thick brush the Little Black Bear dragged the trap and weight. When the hounds caught up with her at last she was standing up and swinging away with her long claws.
Barking, howling, they backed her to the edge of the short bluff— when she went over all the dogs did too. Into the bloody melee, Ed aimed his 30-30. Three shots later it was over. They slung her on a pole and brought her down the mountain. |
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By Thea Gavin |
