The bear theme on this trip has gotten totally out of hand. This is Manning, for crying out loud! These campsites are unoccupied only when absolutely closed, during winter when the bears are all supposed to be denning anyway. Even so, yesterday evening as I put my book away and we admired the stream, talking of this & that, yet another full grown bear wandered into the river downstream of us. I believe Nola's exact words were "Fuck me!" and I must say I could not blame her.
We yelled at it and it retreated to the far bank, then reappeared briefly to get a drink. It was dark brown rather than full black, and fairly big. It backed into the bushes and we caught glimpses of it as it moved up the ridge, in no hurry at all.
More reading, talking... watched a kingfisher swoop over our heads and chipmunks & squirrels dash back and forth on the stones below our chairs. Kids from another camp squealed as they floated an air mattress over the teeny rapids.
More people arrived and set up camp nearby. We started thinking supper thoughts. I looked downstream. "Shit, Nola, there's another one!" It was an entirely different bear, quite black, its muzzle no longer tan, but greyish. Nola was beyond cussing-- I shouted "Bad bear! Bad! Bad bear!" as she ran for the tarp poles. Campers appeared on the near bank, obviously thinking this quite a treat. The bear crouched on the bank, its head lowered, staring at me. It seemed to be thinking, "Girl, you ain't seen 'bad bear' yet." Nola decided to take a picture, since it wasn't going to cross with all the people about.
After some long moments, it, too, disappeared back into the trees.
Apparently, they're wanting the berries, which have all come ripe up here finally. As campgrounds are cleared land, berry bushes grow abundantly all around us. And with all the fires, there's a number of displaced bears, is my guess. They're all too blasé about people for my taste, though.
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Essentially, the campground was one large berry patch. (Saskatoons– I hear they make great pies.) We do know how to pick them, don’t we?
We chatted with one couple who decided to visit the outhouse in the middle of the night. About half way there, their dog stopped dead and then dived behind them. They decided rather quickly that they could pee somewhere else.
On the bright side, these bears only seemed interested in berries, not people, who they clearly regard primarily as an impediment to stuffing their faces. So although they were a bit on the nervewracking side, it wasn’t as bad as the Skagit bear, which was clearly interested in Us.
Did I mention that I’d never seen a bear in a park ca…? oh, right.