While in Whistler, Rita and I decided to carry over a traditional East Coast past-time we learned from my grandmother in Nova Scotia–moose “hunting”. While visiting Cape Breton Island last summer, Rita, my grandma, and I would head out around dusk and drive along the highway in search of moose that were out looking for food. Although our attempts were only marginally successful in the East of this great country, we thought we would try again on the West–this time with bears!
We were on a Zip Trek tour and mentioned to our guides that we were eager to see bears while in Whistler. With bears being pretty populous in the area, one of the guides casually said, “Ok. Just head up Blackcomb mountain for about 10 minutes and you are almost sure to see bears; there are some feeding areas up there.” Without hesitation, we started our journey up Blackcomb that evening.
After about 15 minutes of hiking, I looked to my right and saw a black dot moving across one of the hills in the distance. “A bear!” I shouted to Rita as I laid eyes on my first wild bear. It was quite far–about four hundred metres away–so we started walking towards it. In a couple minutes we had reached a sign: “This Areas is CLOSED: Bears In Area, Do Not Disturb.” No one was around and we figured that a little blue rope wasn’t really keeping us protected from any bears so we crossed it with the intention of just getting a “little” closer. Trying to keep my eyes on the bear in the distance, I was taken by surprise when, a moment later, I saw another black bear moving through the tall grass 100 feet infront of us.
I’m not sure what possessed us to do so, but we crept closer to watch this bear search for snacks. I’ll admit that I was pretty nervous but, at the same time, it also felt peaceful to watch this large animal go about its business even though it knew we were nearby. It actually didn’t seem to care much that we were there. We were even able to watch it plop down on its butt a couple times and rest. The man-eating image of bears that was planted in my head quickly disappeared.
We decided not to push our luck and started to head back. This is when we saw our third (and largest) bear. This one came walking right along one of the paths towards us and then began to trot as a few other people tried to scare it away. A little too close for comfort, we moved down the hill and let it pass us. Watch the video below to get an idea of our little adventure!
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2 Comments
Neat video! Seems like you had quite the adventure!
Poor lil bear!