September 12, 2013 – Today would have been Mom’s birthday, and one of the things that I enjoyed was the fact that she really did worry about the things that I did and the places I would go. I can only imagine what she would have thought of this, today, on her birthday of all days.
It was a tough morning, waking up and thinking about her. I had a little cry, and then had to pull up my boots and get on with the day. I was in Bella Coola and heading out on the Atnarko River with a hatchery crew to collect Chinook broodstock.
There are a lot of bears in the region, but I never seem to see any. The crew thought we wouldn’t encounter any as the day was too hot, but as it turned out, we encountered four. This is Rip-Torn – a big boar that they are familiar with and relatively comfortable around. They described him as being relatively “polite” and he and the crew are very respectful of each other.
A little later an unknown sow with two cubs emerged on the other side of the river and there was a little more caution exercised in her presence.
We were eating our lunches on the river bank when Rip-Torn came back out for a second river plunge, and he watched us carefully before moving back into the bush and circling around behind us to come out above us where he snacked on the salmon carcasses we had left on the bank.
And yes, he’s relatively close here. Less and 100m away, about three or four good bounds from us. Those eyes were very calculating and intelligent.
Four days on the Central Coast, and me with two cameras. That means that I have a lot more photos to sort through and process….