Hard at Work!

Who would know a month would pass before I got around to another post.  I think it was perhaps seeing Wandering Willy posting again that spurred me into action!  Of course he has been off the air a lot longer than I, but it is good to see him on the road again.

Meanwhile, I have been working full time again, and been trying to move more of my stuff to my post-work location.

Overtime this summer has been good so far, so I don’t mind working for a while, but I’m getting itchy feet to get back on the road again and see some new sights.  I managed to get out on a couple weekend expeditions, but they will have to wait for the next post.

Most of my work involves grizzly bears at this time of year.  Early one morning I had a call about a sow grizzly and two cubs near a local resort on the lakeshore.  I got there a bit too late to see the bears, but I was not far behind them as I tracked them down a shoreline trail.  They had stopped for a drink, then continued on leaving wet footprints on the trail!

Later on, one of the helicopters we use had a slight ‘incident’, and it was decided to haul it to helicopter hospital for a precautionary check-up.  I have flown on this machine many times, but have never seen it in the air without a pilot before.  Or, without any blades, which were taken off to facilitate the move.  

The next incident involved both bears and helicopters.  One of our unruly bears discovered that he (or she) could break into facilities in the backcountry and get a feed of oats and other horse feed.  So we had to fly in to check and repair several of these locations – and install electric fencing to reduce the likelihood of recurrence.  (we used a different helicopter)

 

The bear was quite intent on getting in, and spent a lot of time and energy doing so, in spite of some doors and windows being lined with sharp nail points as a deterrent. It left some nice muddy paw prints all over the walls.

I guess this is the sign of a bad day if you are a long-haul trucker?  I came across this scene last week along the Trans Canada Highway.  I’m not sure what the cause of the blaze was, but it may have been as a result of overheating from a long hill climb.

   

These deer bucks thought they were hiding from me, but I guess they had forgotten that they had grown some new antlers this summer!  They’ll have to go to deer-stealth summer school I guess ;-).

  

Most of my time at work the last while is focused on keeping the wildlife and human visitors far enough apart that they do not harm each other.

For weaponry, the wildlife generally carry teeth and claws and hoofs and horns, while the humans sport cars, trucks, trains, and poor garbage handling or illegal feeding.

This black bear had her two cubs and herself up a tree, in a construction zone, on the side of the trans Canada highway – on the wrong side of the wildlife fence.

It took a bit of doing, but we eventually coaxed her down with an inviting hole cut into the fence.

This was all done under the interested gaze of a young male grizzly who wondered what those cubs would taste like. Fortunately, black bear cubs climb trees, and grizzlies don’t – generally.

(Note: photos with the dark circles around them were taken through a spotting scope.)

As is normal in June, the goats were down along the side of the highway, frequenting their favourite ‘licks’, and showing off their youngsters.

Another Mama grizzly showed up at the Chateau Lake Louise to show off her new twins, coming down from the hills for the first time this season. Unfortunately, my hands were fairly full of bear spray, cracker gun, shotgun, and radio – all while attempting to hold the crowds of humans at bay, so there was no time for any photos of her this time.

But one of her previous offspring has been a regular resident the past couple of years, and he keeps us busy escorting him out of town regularly.

Every once in a while, between bears, there might be time to sit on the lakeshore and enjoy the scenery! I’m still waiting for that time to arrive.

Weekends off have been really lousy weather, so even though tempting, the camping rigs have maintained their spots in the driveway. Perhaps July will bring some summer in these parts?

More Revelstoke Lake pics.

It’s amazing how working for a living can cut into one’s time for camping, traveling, and blogging.  Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

But here are some more photos from our great weekend out at Revelstoke lake, north of the town of the same name in central British Columbia.

New travel partner Hailey seemed to really enjoy the outdoors, even if it meant wearing a hand-me-down harness and being on a leash!

Although we had managed to score a camp spot on the shore all to ourselves, there were a lot of other campers just down the shoreline.  Water levels were down a bit, so there was just enough exposed shoreline to walk down and check it out.

 

Even though it was Tuesday morning after the long weekend, there were still quite a collection of other rigs packed into another area of accessible shoreline.

Back at my camp, I was surprised to see an otter swimming by up the lakeshore.  I did a fast-draw on the camera and got a photo, but once again it was just too far away to see anything other than a ripple in the still water.  Same effect for a brood of young merganzers all riding by on their mother’s back!

We went for a drive up to the north end of the lake where another Dam, the Mica Dam holds back the water in Kinbasket lake.  We were camped at about the 60km mark up the lake, but it was another 70 or 75 km to the end of the lake and the Mica Dam.

 

Near the dam itself, we surprised a nice cinnamon coloured black bear feeding roadside.

There was a good sized town of 4000 people at the peak of construction in the 1970’s, but now there is still a very small village, also called Mica Creek.

This bridge crosses the river/lake just below the dam and provides access to the far side of the dam, as well as active logging roads in the area.

Some of the housing looks like it is being prepared for demolition, moving, or perhaps renovations.

This grader in the trees may have been used during the construction of the dam?

Plans to get out camping on another nearby lake this weekend were scrapped due to continuing cool, rainy weather.

Next post may include some bear photos from work?