I GOT TO SEE MY BEAR!

I will get to the bear in a minute… I have been trying to put the posts on the blog in chronological order… and I am a little behind… but had to get this one out there…. for those of your reading in real time,  yesterday I was just able to post up through Aug 26^th… for those of you reading later… nevermind,  enjoy the stories.….

Today I was treated to a wonderful sunrise over the vineyards… what a treat…No worse for wear (or wine). 

I made an early start to try to see how far I could get towards Waterton Lakes/Glacier National Park.  I did pretty good and made it to Grand Forks before really stopping.  BC has visitor centers in most “major” towns.  Something I found out the other day, was that these each have free wifi,  but only if you go in and talk with them to get the password…  I validated the route I was on and asked her if there was anywhere I should stop along the way.   She told me about Kokanee Creek Provincial Park…  and mentioned they have some Salmon ladders and that the fish should be spawning… I connected to the wifi to get about 4 days of posts out there..  and then I headed that way…  Without her advice,  I'm not sure I would have stopped…. (or seen the bear…)

Now ... Why the bear was a big deal?…

#1 - I didn’t get to see one in Grand Tetons,  we missed them a few times,  and then Trey got to see one and I didn’t because I was messing with my camera… 

#2 – It is a running joke with a friend of mine… He wanted to go to a park with me somewhere… but did not want to go anyplace with BEARS…  

It’s the old joke…. If you see a bear…. You only have to be faster than the person you are with!  And he does not think that he is faster than me…  (I'm not sure whether true or not… but he does not want to test it…)  He is going to meet me for time in Yosemite in October…

#3 – besides zoos,  the only bear I had seen was back in 1986…

So…  I start hiking around.. and saw the incredible amount of fish spawning in the streams…  I read the info boards and keep hiking down the trail next to the streams.  Don’t know why.. but I’m not even really thinking about bears…. I didn’t even have my bear spray with me…it was required for hiking in the Grand Tetons,  but have not heard a mention of it the whole time I have been in BC…  Maybe it’s the black bear vs Grizzly bear thing…

All of a sudden I hear something and a black bear jumped into the stream after the fish!   He was only about 20 or 30 feet away…. He was concentrating on the fish and did not see me!  I followed him down stream… taking pictures… and the bear never even looked at me… for a while… then he saw me… decided the fish were an easier meal... and when back after the fish... I got some incredible shots of him catching a fish… and a number of the pictures are on the web site now! http://www.haresphotography.com/Animals/Bear-Kokanee-Creek

 

The bear friend, mentioned above,  asked “Did you poop your pants?”… I did NOT… I was so excited to see the bear and get the pictures… I didn’t even think to be scared…  The bear was more interested in the fish anyway….

 

Well after that,  the next plan was to go visit the Ainsworth Hot Springs, so I headed that way.. The springs are 104 degrees, and this is a very old springs that actually had a cave back in the mountain… most of the “hot springs” are just hot swimming pools…. I can get that in Texas…  The caves were really nice and had some little grottos to hang out in different areas of the cave.. and one was like a natural steam bath…Not as much fun alone… but was still nice to soak in the hot springs… some friends asked… if swimming suits were required?...  Thank goodness YES!  It was mainly a bunch of older people I really did NOT want to see naked….The friends also asked if they had a cold plunge (like they do in the snow in Sweden).. and they did… and I tried it… and I will never do that again… I'm not sure why any guy would do that too himself… I hope to recover soon… 

I wanted to get pictures of the cave… but did not think I should take my camera in there…  I need to get one of the waterproof cameras like I gave to Trey….  I met some locals later that day and they asked if the springs were crowded?  They call it “People Soup” this time of year..  It really wasn’t too bad for late season on a Thursday.

 

So it was back to Kokanee Creek to camp with the bear.   I went on a walk near the lake,  and was lucky enough to see an osprey swoop down to catch a fish.  I didn’t see the bear again… I did go looking and had my spray with me this time…   I enjoyed the sun going down and went back to the campsite for dinner and a fire….  I made it  223 miles today,  not too bad…  Day 6 in Canada tomorrow…Sorry for such a long post…It was a pretty incredible day!