Rocky Raccoon

Nick and I were camping at Lufkin Bottom in the canyon stretch of the South Fork of the Snake. It was the second night of our float. I was sleeping soundly in my warm sleeping bag when I awoke to some clatter out where we left our camping supplies, food and cooler. I grabbed my flashlight and shined it toward the noise. There it was, the masked culprit. Its eyes were looking at me with a “bright light, bright light” expression and also looking a little annoyed like I was interrupting something. It certainly didn’t run off. So I pulled on my jacket, unzipped the tent and went out to investigate. I was quick enough that the raccoon hadn’t yet broken into all our food. The food was stilled knotted in the plastic bags. The raccoon slowly walked away liked a scolded child. I put the food in the back seat of the boat where it could be locked up. The garbage bag I just place out of reach in the back of the boat.

OK, back to sleep. Oh, first I had to take a moment and gaze up at the stars. What a gorgeous sky. Without any unnatural light around and being deep in the canyon, you can really see forever. The sky has real dimension, galaxy after galaxy. There is a little reflection on the water and the silhouette of the mountains. It is so peaceful and quiet with just the sound of the river, and without the sound of a noisy raccoon.

The next morning, peeking out of the tent everything looked fine, except for a little frost on the tent….or so I thought. Walking down to the boat there was garbage strewn down the bank. How did the raccoon climb inside the boat to get to the garbage? I have a high-sided drift boat to keep the raccoons out, not one of those low profile jobs. And wait a minute, what’s that bread bag that held our sandwiches doing there on the ground? It was kept safely in the cooler. Sure enough, he’d broken into the cooler too.

Later that morning, a few miles down stream Nick mentioned that he was getting hungry. I reminded him that we’d be having some nice wheat, peanut butter and honey sandwiches right now if Rocky Raccoon hadn’t broken into our cooler and eaten them. There weren’t just one or two sandwiches either, there were three or four sandwiches in that bag. That had to be some satisfied critter.