Wayne in BC
New member
That windfall and the bear problem put us behind several hours. By the time the trail was clear to the second spike camp it was late afternoon and we were all beat so made camp there and ate the trail food we had brought along. I figured it was best to go back to the main camp in the morning to do some more work there after a days break.
None of us slept good that night, a herd of Elk were nearby, with the bulls whistling and roaring steady! It was the beginning of the rut and good news that the Elk were here, bad for sleeping tho. We were up early, coffee'd up and on the trail back by 6 am. Uneventfull trip so the main camp was in sight by 9 am and we were all looking forward to getting a good meal, the trail food had not quite cut it.
As we rounded the point of trees some 50 ft from my tents we were passing THE SPRING! Did not tell you about that yet, just the absolute best springhole i had ever seen. I had found it by accident several years previous when my camp had been a quarter mile further down the creek. In november i was out roaming around in the late Deer season. There was a foot of snow and i was walking my horse in this area because it was humpy bumpy and dangerous. Having stopped to rest i was surprised to hear water gurgling. The creek and beaver dams were only a few hundred feet away but froze up solid as the temp had been more than 25 below at night that week.
Following the sound i found a hole in the low thick brush that was about 2 ft square and 3 ft deep with water gushing out of it to disappear down a narrow cut and into the bog near the creek. I was sure some happy
and right away planned to move my camp! This artesian spring would provide my camp with pure fresh water and no risk of giardosis (beaver fever) to my clients. It would also act as a fridge for the camp. When i moved the camp there in the next early summer i nearly could not find it! The grass and brush overhung the hole and its outlet......perfect! My tents went up
Ok, back to the sight at "my spring". There was dirt, grass, brush, and pieces of beer cans stewn all over! It looked like someone had taken a small backhoe to the ground and i knew immediatly that a bear had found our "fridge" into which i normally stuffed a 25 gallon can with a locking ring lid into but had not yet done that this year. It was trashed and my guides were pitching a fit over 3 dozen Coors light beer cans with bite holes in them
There was also bits of the wrapper from a whole ham, 3 lbs of bacon, and two packages of steaks, a roast, potatoe and carrot bags etc!
Those bears will bite into a can of pop or beer and suck out the liquid and i was hoping the sucker was passed out nearby! After a bunch of cussing we went into camp fearing the worst, and we were right, it was also trashed totally! Every tent was tore up! Even tho we left the door flaps tied open the stupid nasty bears would go in, wreck everything in sight and then tear a hole out the side or back wall to get out. Nearly all our food was destroyed or eaten, the cans bitten through and packages scattered, only a small bag of flour and 5 lbs of onions that had been still in a packbox were salvagable, he had even eaten 6 kraft dinners!
We spent several hours patching things together, made one coleman stove out of two, the critter had chewed them up for the grease smell on them. I took a fishing rod to the beaverdam and caught us some trout for supper and we set down to plan revenge on you know who after finding a swatch of blonde hairs where he had rubbed his back on a tree after marking it with his claws, "my territory now" it said.........Oh yeah? Wanna bet you #%@#&*# bear!!!
We did not even get to bed, just at dusk there was a commotion in the horse corral behind the tents, snorting, squealing, and blowing from the horses followed by a loud "WHUFF HUFF" from the bear, and we all had rifles in hand and boiled out of the tent ready to make war on a bruin!
continued.......
None of us slept good that night, a herd of Elk were nearby, with the bulls whistling and roaring steady! It was the beginning of the rut and good news that the Elk were here, bad for sleeping tho. We were up early, coffee'd up and on the trail back by 6 am. Uneventfull trip so the main camp was in sight by 9 am and we were all looking forward to getting a good meal, the trail food had not quite cut it.
As we rounded the point of trees some 50 ft from my tents we were passing THE SPRING! Did not tell you about that yet, just the absolute best springhole i had ever seen. I had found it by accident several years previous when my camp had been a quarter mile further down the creek. In november i was out roaming around in the late Deer season. There was a foot of snow and i was walking my horse in this area because it was humpy bumpy and dangerous. Having stopped to rest i was surprised to hear water gurgling. The creek and beaver dams were only a few hundred feet away but froze up solid as the temp had been more than 25 below at night that week.
Following the sound i found a hole in the low thick brush that was about 2 ft square and 3 ft deep with water gushing out of it to disappear down a narrow cut and into the bog near the creek. I was sure some happy
and right away planned to move my camp! This artesian spring would provide my camp with pure fresh water and no risk of giardosis (beaver fever) to my clients. It would also act as a fridge for the camp. When i moved the camp there in the next early summer i nearly could not find it! The grass and brush overhung the hole and its outlet......perfect! My tents went up
Ok, back to the sight at "my spring". There was dirt, grass, brush, and pieces of beer cans stewn all over! It looked like someone had taken a small backhoe to the ground and i knew immediatly that a bear had found our "fridge" into which i normally stuffed a 25 gallon can with a locking ring lid into but had not yet done that this year. It was trashed and my guides were pitching a fit over 3 dozen Coors light beer cans with bite holes in them
There was also bits of the wrapper from a whole ham, 3 lbs of bacon, and two packages of steaks, a roast, potatoe and carrot bags etc!Those bears will bite into a can of pop or beer and suck out the liquid and i was hoping the sucker was passed out nearby! After a bunch of cussing we went into camp fearing the worst, and we were right, it was also trashed totally! Every tent was tore up! Even tho we left the door flaps tied open the stupid nasty bears would go in, wreck everything in sight and then tear a hole out the side or back wall to get out. Nearly all our food was destroyed or eaten, the cans bitten through and packages scattered, only a small bag of flour and 5 lbs of onions that had been still in a packbox were salvagable, he had even eaten 6 kraft dinners!
We spent several hours patching things together, made one coleman stove out of two, the critter had chewed them up for the grease smell on them. I took a fishing rod to the beaverdam and caught us some trout for supper and we set down to plan revenge on you know who after finding a swatch of blonde hairs where he had rubbed his back on a tree after marking it with his claws, "my territory now" it said.........Oh yeah? Wanna bet you #%@#&*# bear!!!
We did not even get to bed, just at dusk there was a commotion in the horse corral behind the tents, snorting, squealing, and blowing from the horses followed by a loud "WHUFF HUFF" from the bear, and we all had rifles in hand and boiled out of the tent ready to make war on a bruin!
continued.......
