Camping at Pass Lake, BC, Part 2

Sunday morning we went camping again at Pass Lake, BC. Sunday was a nice warm day. We got to the campsite and got everything setup. We had chicken sandwiches for lunch and then for dinner we had steak and mushrooms.

While camping, we always make sure that all of our garbage is picked up and that all of the dishes are washed and put away. We make sure the lids are on our coolers and that everything in the campground is clean.

Sunday evening, we spent watching a movie in our camper on my netbook. Then we had a bonfire. It was a nice evening and there were only a few mosquitoes to contend with.

Monday morning came along. Again, my back was pretty sore but that isn't the reason we went home early this time. The reason we went home early is because of a very furry visitor to our campsite.

I got up and took some pictures around the campsite and was going to go for a walk down to the lake to take some more pictures. However, something told me not to go. Something told me to stay in the campsite. I did what my instinct told me.

My husband and I were sitting around the campfire and my dog, Ice, started staring underneath our truck and whining. Now, when Ice whines and stares, it is usually because he sees something. At home, he'll whine and stare up into the mountain and I'll go look and there are mountain sheep there.

We then heard a shot from a gun. We both looked at each other. My husband took Ice and went to find out what was going on. He wasn't gone but two minutes before he was coming back toward the campsite.

"There is a bear by the lake," he said calmly. "Pick up Ice's food dish and put it in the back of the trailer."

I quickly did as I was told and then I looked down toward the lake and sure enough, looking right at me was a black bear, right in the same spot I was going to go take some pictures about 5 minutes earlier. From now on, I am listening to that sixth sense I have because if I didn't listen to what my mind was telling myself I would have walked right into that bear.

It was kind of scarey and kind of exciting all at the same time. My husband was back at the campsite with Ice. We put Ice in the back of the truck, in our camper and closed the door and then put up the bumper of the truck. Ice was such a good boy. He just sat in the camper, looking around him but did not bark once. I got into the passenger seat of the truck and quickly closed my door and my husband made sure everything was secure in the campsite and then joined me in the truck.

We had our windows rolled up and were only about 50 feet from the bear. The bear was walking up the little trail to our campsite but then turned around and went back toward the lake. I breathed a sigh of relief. The bear went in behind our campsite, up onto a ridge and then started walking toward the campsite again. He then took off in the direction of the outhouse. We couldn't see him after that.

We slowly got out of the truck and took a good look all around us, checking in front of us and behind us too. It was safe, we couldn't see the bear. We got Ice out of the camper. Ice was calm, cool and collected.

The man that had shot the shotgun earlier came around our campsite just after that. He told us that he had shot his gun off trying to scare the bear away but the bear ended up coming our way instead. We told the man what we had seen. He figured that we'd be okay and he said he was staying the night there at the campground one more night and that if we had any problems, just go talk to him.

I had to go to the bathroom really bad so I got my husband to walk me over to the outhouse. We took Ice with us. Just as we were starting up the path to the outhouse, my husband saw the bear again. He was probably 100 feet away from the outhouse. Ice barked at the bear once. I saw him too. He was behind a tree. He didn't seem too interested in what we were doing. I lost the urge to go to the bathroom and just wanted to go back to the campsite. My husband said it would be okay if I went to the bathroom. The whole time I was going to the bathroom I was asking my husband what the bear was doing.

"He just laid down in the field up the road," my husband said.

I hurried as fast as I could and then we started heading back down to the campsite. I was afraid of walking down that road because if that bear decided to turn our way and come after us, I would have no way of escaping because of my back I couldn't walk very fast.

We made it back to the campsite and then I saw the headlines in a newspaper that had been in the camper for almost a year. It was the story about a woman who was attacked by a black bear while gardening. I shouldn't have read that newspaper and I wish it wasn't sitting on the table because I started to get a little scared after that. Then about a half an hour later we noticed that the man that said he was staying decided to leave. All of a sudden, I got really scared. I felt safe while the man with the gun was there, not that I in anyway wanted the bear dead because I didn't. However, I did not want to stay there any longer with the fear of knowing that bear could be anywhere.

The bear was a young bear, a one year old. He was a black bear. He looked pretty big and I'm sure his claws and teeth were pretty big and I'm also sure I didn't want to find out just how big his claws and teeth were. We decided to cut our camping trip short and go home.