A Bear Story
Last Monday night Kayla, Oren, and I decided to take a short ride down the river. We brought fishing rods and the grub box (cooler) full of supplies to cook hot dogs for dinner. Stan and Doris had called earlier and had said that they were going to go down to Ukalailuk. We loaded up the boat and headed downriver. We were just around the bend from the pit and we ran across Stan and Doris. We almost stopped but then we couldn't make up our mind what we were going to do, so we just waved and kept on going.
I figured we would make a fire at the mouth of Katchourak Creek, but the river was still too high to make a fire anywhere near there. We ended up going just a little ways further down to a long gravel beach scattered with willows.
We proceeded to gather a pile of sticks and logs for our fire. For some reason I have been struggling to get fires lit this year. It took me a couple tries, but finally I got the fire going. Oren was chomping at the bit to start cooking a hot dog. I cut some sticks for roasting and we let him have at it. Kayla and I savored our last cans of Dr. Pepper for the year. Quick side note: They were our last cans of pop not because the store ran out, but because we are going to make a concerted effort to stop drinking pop.
The fire was beautiful for cooking. A hot bed of coals with a perfect amount of flame burning up. I eaten two hot dogs already and I was debating whether I wanted to eat another one. Actually, the debating was already over in my mind. I just hadn't worked up the energy to get out of my camp chair to get another Vollwerth's to cook.
All of the sudden we heard a loud roar coming from downriver. Kayla said, "What was that?!"
I replied, "Walk over towards the boat while I try to get a better look." They sounded loud and I was starting to think maybe we should just run for the boat. I walked up to higher ground to see if we had to run to the boat and haul out of there, or if we could pack up the cooler and chairs before we left. I couldn't see anything at first, but then I saw a bear cub, and another, and another, and then a sow too. They were still a ways off. 500 yards or more and across a small side channel.
Meanwhile I am looking for the bears Kayla is trying to get Oren in the boat but all he wants to do is see the bears. "I wanna go see the Bears!"
I told Kayla and Oren to come an look at them and they did. The cubs started swimming across the side channel and the sow followed them. I decided that we should probably load up. We got everything in the boat and shoved off. As we were getting out into the middle of the river I saw one of the cubs standing up coming out of the willows a lot closer to our fire than would have been comfortable if we were still there. I wasn't really a close call, but I was glad that I decided we should leave. Kayla was glad too.
After we got back Oren told his bear story to everybody. "I saw BIIIG bears!" and "Bears go roar!"
I figured we would make a fire at the mouth of Katchourak Creek, but the river was still too high to make a fire anywhere near there. We ended up going just a little ways further down to a long gravel beach scattered with willows.
We proceeded to gather a pile of sticks and logs for our fire. For some reason I have been struggling to get fires lit this year. It took me a couple tries, but finally I got the fire going. Oren was chomping at the bit to start cooking a hot dog. I cut some sticks for roasting and we let him have at it. Kayla and I savored our last cans of Dr. Pepper for the year. Quick side note: They were our last cans of pop not because the store ran out, but because we are going to make a concerted effort to stop drinking pop.
The fire was beautiful for cooking. A hot bed of coals with a perfect amount of flame burning up. I eaten two hot dogs already and I was debating whether I wanted to eat another one. Actually, the debating was already over in my mind. I just hadn't worked up the energy to get out of my camp chair to get another Vollwerth's to cook.
All of the sudden we heard a loud roar coming from downriver. Kayla said, "What was that?!"
I replied, "Walk over towards the boat while I try to get a better look." They sounded loud and I was starting to think maybe we should just run for the boat. I walked up to higher ground to see if we had to run to the boat and haul out of there, or if we could pack up the cooler and chairs before we left. I couldn't see anything at first, but then I saw a bear cub, and another, and another, and then a sow too. They were still a ways off. 500 yards or more and across a small side channel.
Meanwhile I am looking for the bears Kayla is trying to get Oren in the boat but all he wants to do is see the bears. "I wanna go see the Bears!"
I told Kayla and Oren to come an look at them and they did. The cubs started swimming across the side channel and the sow followed them. I decided that we should probably load up. We got everything in the boat and shoved off. As we were getting out into the middle of the river I saw one of the cubs standing up coming out of the willows a lot closer to our fire than would have been comfortable if we were still there. I wasn't really a close call, but I was glad that I decided we should leave. Kayla was glad too.
After we got back Oren told his bear story to everybody. "I saw BIIIG bears!" and "Bears go roar!"
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