September 24, 2014

Today's advenuture was an absolutely insane crazy idea for most people, but most people don't care and want to see bears like I do. Today, Sue and I hired a guide to take us up close and personal with grizzly bears. We would hike up and down the river's edge on foot quitely sneaking in the brush and wood's that the bears use as there personal highway up and down the river's edge during the salmon run season. We would be stepping on their trails into their space, all for the experience. This is defintely something no one should try without a guide. Guides have local knowledge of the land and the bears that occupy this area. It would be crazy to do this on your own, and maybe even a little crazy to do it with someone who does it all the time. There's always the potential for something to go wrong. Every bear has it's own induvidual personality.

So we got up early and somehow got a little behind schedule. Sue was mad that we would be a little late for the meetup. We signed up for a group hike because it was cheaper than a personal one. We wouldn't be that late, 5 or 10 minutes, so I wasn't all that worried. While I'm not the type who usually shows up late, life is full of late people, it is what it is. We'll we pulled into the driveway and their was 3 or 4 other cars parked there. We quickly got out of the car and as we approached the door, a gentleman exited the house and as he step off the last porch step, he asked "Is there something I can do for you", in an almost "what the hell are you doing here tone". Hmmmm - not quite the greeting I was expecting. Sue quickly said "We have a hike planned with you today". The look we got back was "You have a what - when?". Sue continued to explain that we had a hike planned for some months now and this morning was when it was suppose to happen. Sue had an email with all the details and we handed it to him. The look of annoyance quickly turned to a look of embarrasment. Then the flow of appoligies started. Jeff (the guide) explained how he always kept careful track of all his engagements, but somehow this one didn't make it in the book. He wasn't ready for a hike, but we sure were. With out tight schedule it was now or never. Jeff grabbed his jacket and bear spray along with his dog Bindy, and before we knew it we were walking down the road to a path were we could enter the river's edge. Jeff's place was very close to the river and he owned a nice section of property that had a lot of river's edge frontage. He had built a personal "bear viewing" platform in one location and that would be where we would start today's adventures.

So the three of us and Bindy hunkered down on the platform sitting on the water's edge, quietly waiting to see what may show up. We sat and talked quickly getting familiar with each other. Conversation started with the usual "what brings you here" kind of stuff. After a while there was no bear action. Time to move. We walk back to Jeff's house. Straight out his back yard was the river. We walked down to it and started along another grizzly trail heading east from here. Walking, listening, wating, listening. It was very exciting. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any bear action in this direction either. We hiked out to the road and back to Jeff's place. From there we hopped into his truck and drove to yet another spot.

We hiked down a steep slope which ended on an elbow in the river, bending to the left. We sat quietly and talked lightly amongst ourselves while keeping vigilant surveillance on everything/anything around us. At one point I looked at my watch (for no reason other than I wonder what time it was) and Jeff ask "Do you have to be somewhere". I said "no" and Sue joked "We could have dinner with ya", meaning we had no plans for the rest of the day. The conversation at times turn serious, world events, the US, Canada, Bella Coola and of course the bears and their future. I also asked a question about a personal observation I had noticed which in turn probed Jeff into revealing some valley gossip, which confirmed my observation. It was something I had suspected all along, but this added a new twist to the plot. I can't tell you what it was, because what goes on in the valley stays in the valley, but let's just say it lead to Jeff asking us if we wanted to come over for dinner that night. Jeff's friends Derrick and Jim were in town and along with his girlfriend, they were cooking up a dinner. Sounded like a good idea to us, we had to run back to the lodge to get the steaks we had previously picked up earlier week, so that's what we did. We never did see even one hint of a bear on the hikes we did with Jeff, but that was okay. There is something insanely adrenaline pumping about meeting a bear eye to eye on foot. I know this from the black bear encounter's I've had during hiking. I can't even begin to amagine what seeing a grizzly nearby while on foot is like. We had seen so many bears so far this week, although it would have been fantastic to see one on foot, it wasn't necessary. Sue and I arrived at Jeff's house later that night, and all of us hike from his house down to the platform were on eralier that day, in hopes of seeing bears. We had a lovely little bird land on a rock and sing to us for about a half hour, but again, no bears were sighted. Later back at the house, we had an excellent meal with wine and lotsand lots of laughter. It really was a great day. Also, it turns out earlier that day while Jeff was with us, Jim and Derrick went on their own bear hike from the house and actually saw bears. Earlier Derrick had tried to tell us that, but Jeff hushed him up, with our attempts being unsuccessful he didn't want to hear about the bears they saw - haha. Just another thing we laughed about. You can't control nature. It does what it wants. Thank you guys for a fantastic time and some amazing hospitality and I hope our path cross again sometime. If your ever in the Northeast USA, give us a shout. We would love to show you some of the beauty in out section of the world.