Goldilocks and the two bears

In the story book there were three bears

Preparing for our girls fishing trip to Victoria a few weeks ago I telephoned my girlfriend to complete our carpool arrangements. She sounded a little panicked… I inquired about what was wrong… this was her story..

We have lived in Emerald for several years and have had the same summer visitor come by the house each year… Momma bear, and most recently her cub…  I was out for the evening having dinner at Nicklaus North (The Den)http://www.golfbc.com/courses/nicklaus_north  after a spectacular day of golfing with the girls…  My husband arrived home alone, he walked into the house and  turned on the lights, as he headed into the kitchen he could see the house was in one heck of a mess…. something did not seem right, and boy did it stink, lo and behold staring at him through the kitchen window was momma bear….the peices began to fall into place.. after scaring the bear away he proceeded into the living room only to find more mess and more bear droppings… the bears were not in the house long, but the damage was severe. He called his good friend who lived next door and between the two of them they cleaned the house as best they could before I returned. The bear cleaned out the fridge and all the drawers… dumped the rice, flour and canned goods everywhere…a real house wrecker.

3am

We awoke to the sound of breaking glass, and sure enough momma was back for more of my home cooking… she knocked over the wood pile and was trying to get back into the house… we were scared…grabbed the axe and started to make lots of noise…. off they ran.

7am

Believe it or not the two gangsters came back for a third try at getting in…this time we called the Conservation Officer Service and within hours they arrived.

A long day and night

 The officers brought along the famous bear cage and a well thought out plan… we too were part of the new strategy for getting the bears into the cage. For starters we needed to be very quiet and use cardboard signs to talk back and forth with the officers….they needed to get momma bear into the cage first and have her take a little bear nap….of course a little help was administered via a very long needle… next was to coax the little baby bear who was crying up the nearby tree, to come down and get into the cage with momma… By 11pm that evening exactly that had happened.

The old baked pie story

Don’t believe it, my good friend while she is an incredible cook had no such treats on the counter, the window from which the bears gained entry was hardly big enough for a small dog..no garbage to entice them no cooking all day… The point is you should lock your doors, close your ground windows and never leave garbage around the outside of your home. I remember when I was in Africa one year reading this sign with regards to monkey’s…

YOU FEED THEM – WE SHOOT THEM!

The End

We believe the two bears were tagged and flown far into the mountains. The unfortunate reality is – if they return to Whistler they will be dispatched.

The link below was just released by Vancouver Sun today…unbelievable… 

http://bit.ly/a6x9kD

http://www.bearsmart.com/

Cheers!

Bears, Bears, everywhere Bears!

 

These particular bear pictures were not taken by me, but a friend of mine who actually has many more amazing bear pictures…. Now the point to this is – he is a realtor, not a photographer, he just happened to be in the right place – at the right time, so to speak.

Purpose

The whole point to this blog post today is last week I tweeted out (whistlerheather – Twitter name) 12 bear shots from my I-Phone all taken at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler Golf Club, http://www.fairmontgolf.com/whistler plus one video…the next day both the Vancouver Sun and the Globe and Mail ran a similar article, however their pictures were much more fun!!! My friends and business associates engaging in my social marketing ask why I had not posted a blog on the my bear day…. This was my day….

On my drive up Highway 99 I spotted a bear in Lions Bay, the driver next to me gave me a thumbs up, very exciting he saw it too… I was just coming down the hill to Britannia Beach and right on the ridge stood another big black bear eating grass….. Interesting two bears in 30 minutes. Later that day I arrived at Myrtle Philip Community School  http://bit.ly/9S8TLT to pick up my daughter Tashi. The kids were playing down in the field next to helicopter park, their sitting in the field was a huge black bear, once again minding his/her business eating grass….. wow!  That very week local bear researcher Michael Allen had spoken at my daughters grade three class. http://www.vanmag.com/News_and_Features/City_Life/Bear_Man 

Chateau Golf Club

Later the same day: It is now 5pm and I am home in the Benchlands – I live next to hole#1 at the Chateau Golf Club…. Nice walk out on the course, after hours, and voila…. none stop bear action – 10 Bears! We saw a momma bear with two golden brown cubs, two other bears having a great old-time and several bears just munching on the grass….My shots were not great as I only possessed my I-Phone…. But the excitement for bear scouting this early in the season was simply amazing… I could not believe I had seen thirteen bears in one day… LOL

Important

Get Bear Smart – http://www.bearsmart.com/

Bear Viewing Tours – http://www.whistler.com/bear_viewing/

I know bears are a wild animal and as such need to be treated with distance and respect… hence my lousy pictures… there is plenty of bear awareness information for tourists and locals, and I highly recommend reading the books and researching on the internet… I was not out looking for bears – it was just an amazing bear day for me and my daughter… Tashi

Running the trails of Whistler

I also run a lot through the trails in Whistler and after spotting so many bears in one day – I am now a little nervous running the trails…. I can honestly tell you that I have not seen one bear in the bush???? I have seen plenty of evidence they are there… but it has been years since I’ve run into a bear on the trail…literally!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrEFdzojgC0

The important thing to remember is don’t leave food in your golf cart, or a freshly baked blueberry pie on the counter with the window open, & most importantly clean up garbage around your dwelling. A Garbage Bear is a Dead Bear!

Cheers!  [tweetmeme source=whistlerheather only_single=false]