Three Grizzly Bears Encounter скачать в хорошем качестве

Three Grizzly Bears Encounter

Jonas Cutoff is a popular campsite, situated at the junction of the Brazeau Loop and the Poboktan Pass trail, an alternate access originating at the Sunwapta Warden Station. Set in a ravine, this attractive campsite is the staging point for the hardest and (in good weather) the most spectacular part of the Brazeau Loop: over Jonas Shoulder and down through Jonas Pass. At 9 p.m., however, it began to rain, and this continued through the night. Rain on the tent can create a peaceful atmosphere that is conducive to sleep, but on this occasion it had the opposite effect as I contemplated the next day’s crux hike. At 5 a.m. the following morning the rain stopped. Still restless, I took advantage of the respite to pack up my gear and cook breakfast. By 7 a.m. the skies had mostly cleared, and ten minutes later I was underway. The two other tents at the site had yet to show any sign of their occupants stirring as I quietly hit the trail. I climbed alone into the picturesque morning, with alpen glow on the ridges around me. I soon left the trees behind and climbed into my own personal alpine sunrise, pausing a few times to take photographs in the early-morning light. Grizzlies In the tent the night before I had been reading from the last, unfinished work of renowned First Nations author, Richard Wagamese. In it, he talked about the importance of peripheral vision while walking, especially with a tendency to look at one’s feet on rough ground. He described an exercise of holding one’s arms out to the side with the thumbs up, finding the spot where you can first see them in your peripheral vision, and then trying to maintain that peripheral awareness. I practiced that as I climbed up through the alpine meadows below Jonas Shoulder that morning. Sometimes the universe just speaks to you, as I was about to discover. Suddenly, I became aware of movement above and to the right of me. Focusing on that spot I identified what appeared to be a young adult grizzly bear coming more or less directly towards me. Simultaneously, I became aware of an animal calling somewhere off to my right, but I was so focused on the bear that I only half-consciously registered the sound as an elk or some other animal to be checked out later. This is the tunnel vision effect that can occur in high-intensity, surprise, and/or survival moments; and it is why Wagamese was suggesting practicing peripheral awareness. Continuing to focus on the grizzly that was closing in on me, I decided that it needed to know for sure that I was there and that I was human. Waving my arms, I yelled “Hey!” a few times, at the same time un-holstering my bear spray and climbing sideways away from the trail. Having done all that I could to mitigate the situation, I decided that I might as well start taking photographs, which is something I have generally avoided during prior grizzly encounters in favour of active avoidance. I also turned my attention to the continuing cries below to my right, which were now sounding like a cross between an elk bugling and the distant roar of Hollywood’s ‘Bart the Bear.’ I quickly identified a second grizzly that appeared to be calling the first bear, and I surmised that I was dealing with a female and a three-year old cub. Unlike black bears that break up their families in the second year, grizzlies often keep their cubs for three years. I realized that I was in a different situation than I had first supposed, especially as a second big cub now ambled into sight above the first. I was at one corner of a triangle, with two curious three-year olds ‘feeling their oats’ at a second vertex, and a clearly frustrated mama bear at the third. High-spirited teenagers came to mind. If I had had better peripheral awareness, I might have seen the mother sooner and I most definitely would not have waved and shouted at her cub. However, she was tolerant of my presence and continued calling to the cubs until they eventually acquiesced and ran down to join her. The maturity of the cubs, the open country, and her obvious familiarity with hikers were likely factors in her tolerance, and my favour. I later learned that the two Edmonton backpackers came up about an hour behind me and encountered the same bears, also without incident. By then, the bears had apparently had enough of people and took off at a high rate of speed. Don’t ever think of trying to outrun an animal that can match the speed of a race horse even on uneven terrain.