September 18, 2014

September 18, 2014

Our trip to Bella Coola, British Columbia, Canada actually started almost 2 years before we prepared to step onto a plane to take us there. I remember it was a foul weather Saturday morning and I wasn’t feeling all that motivated. I laid on the couch and was watching a few programs on TV. It was cold outside and this was my usual MO for waiting around while things warmed up a bit outside, till I could grab the bike and head into the woods for some exercise. I don’t remember exactly which program I was watching, but knowing me, it was probably some kind of nature/wildlife program, or possible a “where to travel to” type show. I really don’t remember. All I remember was a short video of a man named Frazer, rowing down a river, attempting to see grizzly bears feeding during the salmon run. Being a huge lover of bears I really enjoyed this little clip and it got me think how someday I would love to see a wild grizzly bear in the wild. This got me to thinking how America once had many grizzly bears throughout its entire west coast all the way down into Mexico. But of course, as the history of Europe will show, the white European man and grizzly bears can’t share the same land. It is a very sad story to read the eradication of the grizzly bears from the states. 75 years after the discovery of gold in California, every grizzly bear in the state had been hunted down and killed. The last grizzly bear in California was killed in 1922 and Utah’s in 1923. Of course, many other states were busy eradicated the grizzly from existence also. Texas’ last was killed in 1890 and South Dakota in 1897. Oregon and Washington were gone by 1931 and 1936 respectively. New Mexico’s were gone by 1933 and Arizona by 1939. One final holdout in Colorado was a female in the San Juan Mountains who was killed in 1952. Yup, the European white man almost did it again. Eradicate that which you don’t understand and cannot tolerate. If it wasn’t for Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, the grizzly bear would most likely not be living in any of the 48 contiguous lower states. The grizzly retreated to these parks and survived their ultimate intended demise. The only place that any “significant amount” of grizzlies can be found in the lower 48 today are in the northern parts of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

Having read all this prior to seeing the video clip, that Saturday morning, my mind began stirring about when would I ever actually get the chance to see a wild grizzly bear. The more I thought about this, the more I realized the ONLY way I was going to actually see a wild grizzly bear, was if I made it happen. I would have to put myself in the best grizzly bear sighting opportunity I could find. So days later after seeing the video clip of Frazer drifting down the Atnarko river watching bears feeding on salmon, I looked up the video and luckily I found it online. I showed the clip to Sue and said I want to go here and do this. That was all I had to say. One thing Sue is always up for is a trip. She loves planning out our adventures. A couple months later, rough plans were beginning to take form. Money needed to be saved, lodging acquired, cars rented, drift tours scheduled and hikes planned. When you going to travel that far, you want to see and do as much as you can.

We had an afternoon flight out of Allentown. It's nice to fly out so close to home. We left our house around 10am and we got down there and through security in no time. Flight was on time and before we knew it, we were off to Chicago. Landed in Chicago and our connecting flight was in the same terminal. We hiked it across the way and were ready to go without dealing with security again. We had some time to kill, so we got some lunch at the Goose Island Brewing Company. This is a Chicago based brewery and their beers are pretty tasty. We had a good lunch. Next we knew it, we were on a plane heading for Vancouver. We got on the tarmack and it felt like we were driving to Vancouver. I think the plane taxied for a half hour. Once we were finally in the air, the pilot told us the wind had shifted, so all the planes had to taxi to the other side of the airport to fly out in the opposite direction. Another smooth flight. One cool feature on these newer United Planes is that they have wifi on them. You can connect your smart phone or tablet to them and watch shows/movies. You could even buy internet access for a reasonable price. We landed in Vancouver and taxied over to our hotel. The hotel was nothing special, but we went to a restaurant around the corner that was fantastic. It was quiet and uncrowded, but we got some absolutely fantastic meals. I got a bourbon chicken that was delicious. Sue got meat and potatoes and hers was great also. Two young girls were bartending and waitressing the whole place, and they were fun to talk to about Canada. Overall the entire trip thus far went smooth.