Day 13: Yosemite National Park

The motto of the night: BE THE BEAR! On our ranger-lead night hike - no lights allowed except for whatever is provided by the moon - all of us are forced to trust the senses we usually neglect in favor of our sight. A few games of catch-the-prey-while-blindfolded proves that we can't even catch someone within the limits of a 2 meter circle. On top of that most of us also fail the scent-challenge: while our noses can't even detect a cup of coffee ... from a distance of 3 feet, any Yosemite black bear could smell it from 3 miles away. In face of these facts we should hesitate the next time we so willingly declare ourselves superior to animals. The truth is: we need to hide everything that has a smell - food, shampoo, chapstick - from these super- noses whereas the only reason we  know we even have all of this stuff is because we've seen it while checking our bags.