Wednesday, August 13, 2008

A bear in Silicon Valley?

This is old news for many of you at this point, but I was surprised to read, in Tom Stienstra's column, that two Bay Area hikers saw a black bear this week at Rancho San Antonio near Cupertino. It's a beautiful open space area where you always see vitamin-D deprived programmers going on long runs with "Got Code?'' T-shirts.
By the way, there is a slight connection between my book and Rancho San Antonio, once the home of the unfortunate Elisha Stephens, a pioneer and homesteader who appears in The Cactus Eaters(Stephens helped open up what became known as "Donner Pass,'' got zero credit, and died a bee-keeping, bitter grump in Kern County. Apparently he's in an unmarked grave.) Rancho San Antonio is my big escape every time I feel like going to points south and warming up but don't have the time to get to my beloved Santa Cruz. I've seen rattlesnakes, deer, hundreds of quail and a limping bobcat --- but alas, never a bear. Is Ursus Americanus taking over Silicon Valley? Stay tuned.

1 comment:

cactuseaters said...

P.S. -- I know it is kind of cheesy to comment on one's own blog entry, but I went back to the rancho the other day in search of the elusive visiting bear. No luck. I didn't see anything. (Bears have things to do and places to go. I think it moved on to greener pastures.)