The experience occurred in August of 2003, during my annual, long summer backpack, 2 weeks of recharge with good friends, 360-degree views and mountain lake swims. I was with 7 members of the Seattle Mountaineers, most of them friends I had backpacked with for years. This trip was an exploration of the High Sierras, out of the Bishop area.

We reached the Lower Dusy Basin in the John Muir Wilderness. We had seen some bear scat in the Basin, but it was obviously from a small bear, and I was not concerned. However, my friend, Teri, had been voicing her fear of bears. We were prepared; we all had our bear canisters as required.

Our group set up camp near the outlet stream of this stunning basin. My tent mate, Linda, and I put up my Clip Flashlight tent near Teri and Bill's tent. After a top-of-the-world scramble up into the Palisades Basin and back, we hit our sleeping bags exhausted.

In the dead of the night, I was awakened by a pounding noise, the ground vibrating under me. Suddenly a moving heavy animal crashed onto the tent, falling on my legs and on Linda's back. We screamed! Then Teri, in the tent next door, awakened by our screams, yelled out, "Where's The Bear! Where's The Bear!"

In the pitch black, we realized that it was merely a startled deer that tripped over our tent guy line while running. I'm sure it was more terrified than we were.

The next morning, in the sunlight, we made a tent inspection; no damage was found, and all tent stakes and guy lines were intact. What a bombproof tent! During the rest of the backpack, we didn't see any more deer, but there were many jokes about bear attacks.

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Hiking amongst the lakes in the High Sierras.

A picturesque lunch spot.

The group - with bear canisters!