Manning Park Part B

Ah-ha, the mother load - Hozameen reaveales itself (km 8). This is also where we passed the other hiking group - we admired the view together for a few minutes before we took off ahead of them. Jokingly they told us to scare the bears away for them, just as we passed a sign "Mowich Camp, Bears in Area".

Now I must stray from the photo journey for a moment, or maybe two. It was here, walking & talking happily along the trail when we passed another trail marker "10km", woohoo only 2km until we get to Mowich camp! We were feeling pretty good and I was leading the way when I saw a bear on the trail, I kept walking because normally these "bears" are stumps, bushes or rocks and my over-active imagination gangs up on me. This time however, the "bear" had ears and a nose on top of a moving head. I told Chris and we stopped in our tracks and I followed back country protocol by dropping my head as to not look it in the eye (but really I was looking because what the bear did next would determine our future-I wonder if they can tell that you are looking at them even through dark sunglasses??) I spoke in a deep, calm voice and told the bear that we were going to back up while still facing "it". At this point, I thought that we were totally cool because the bear turned away from us.....victory? Not quite as it only got on top of the trail and stood on its' back legs - only better to see you my deary. I was giving Chris a play by play and may have started to crap myself at this point in time. We kept going back until we were out of sight, or "it" was out of sight, whatever. We retraced our steps about 1km and took a break in a lovley meadow. It was here that we held a family meeting and discussed things like "was that what they meant when the internet said that Mowich was a great place to watch Black Bears?" , "Do we turn around and walk out?" and "Do we take a chance and try again?"

Needless to say, we did not turn around - I think that was only an option in the moment of panic. We did however agree that perhaps we weren't being loud enough and that we'd need to make more of an effort. So, we continued with a few changes:

1. Chris removed his bear bell from his pack and kept it in his hand - ringing constantly.
2. I removed my bear bell from my pack and wrapped it around my walking stick.
3. I sang 99 bottles of beer on the wall at top volume.....I finished the whole damn song.

Oddly enough, we did not see another bear on the trail and it was the longest 2 km.

Close up of Hozameen

Our tent site at Mowich

This is where you lock up any food, cooking or cosmetic items so that the bears are not attracted to the camp site. I think that "someone" (big, black and furry) used it as a trampoline.

This is the lean to and the fire put at Mowich. There was a great couple and their dog already camped when we showed up (City fold as well, they live 1 block away on the same street!), about an hour later the group of 3 that we passed showed up and thanked us for doing a great job at keeping the bears away!! This is where we cooked our food and sat around chatting and laughing for a couple of hours. A Dad and his 12 year old son showed up after that and after exchanging niceties he announced that he had passed 17 GRADE 9 STUDENTS and their teachers. As there were only 3 designated camp sites we were a bit confused and the only one to speak up was an old English man hiking with his daughter and her boyfriend "Who the f*ck planned that one?" Well said. We were all brainstorming ideas about how to keep the teenagers away but in the end we were doomed, they showed up and peace and quiet as we knew it - well, it was gone. Chris did have a good point though saying something like "it's nice to see kids in this day and age out on the trails" yes, but I'm sure that they would rather be home infront of the tv or on their mobile phones, non?

Anyhoo, our trek out was uneventful and we kept up the loud talking and the ringing of our bear bells. We didn't see anymore furry things except for ravenous chipmunks and the dog, of course.