Submitted by
Blaine Barton
A black bear brings two Fairfax families together in the Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park area the first part of September and the last week of August.
Blaine Barton, a Fairfax native who lives in Shenandoah, Iowa, and his daughter, Cindy and grandchildren enjoy going to the Estes Park area before school opens up.
We do a lot of hiking and picture taking of elk, mountains or anything we see and landscapes. We stay at our relatives cabin along the Big Thompson River. The log cabin is in one of the best locations down the Big Thompson Canyon. We have cars honking and waving at us all the time when we are out in front of the cabin.
On this particular Friday evening, the traffic was heavy up and down the road and then the traffic slowed up. A jeep came along slowly and yelled at Cindy and I. A black bear was in front of them and they were taking pictures with their cell phones. We grabbed our cameras and took some pictures of the bear going up the mountain.
The couple shared the pictures they had taken on their cell phone. We asked them where they were from and they said “Fairfax, Missouri.” When we said we were from there, too, they could not believe this, and the same with Cindy and I.
They had two small children in the back seat and the little girl thought that was something. He said he was Jason Kemerling and family and we told them who we were. We were just dumbfounded over this. I told them where I lived just two miles away from Wayne Bradfields, Lyle Becks and others. I helped set up HSP at Wayne’s each summer and other neighbors in our area.
It is a small world sometimes when something like this happens. This time just because of a black bear in the Colorado rockies.