An entire week in Bella Coola is a gift that I gave myself this year. I am supposed to be acting for someone else, and I sort of am. He has a baby on the way and the due date was next week, so I’d agreed to act for next week and the following week. But the date got pushed up and I was heading here to Bella Coola, so I am only acting for this facility, since I’m here, and someone else will hold the fort for the Island sites until I get back to the South Coast next week.
I’ve been so stressed that my back jammed up and the muscles across my chest have hurt for weeks. I had a couple of muscles pop and release across the top of my chest, so now I can breathe without pain, but there is still much out of sorts on one quarter of my body. The amazing this is that coming here, and working hard, and bashing my shins into rocks and pulling nets leaving my muscles aching, has made me feel better. This place can do that to me.
It can also fill me with sadness.
Most years I come here this same week, the week of Mom’s birthday. So most years I retreat to my room, drink a glass or two of wine, shed some tears at the then so unexpected loss, and wallow a bit over the still-gaping hole in my life.
And then I go pull nets and fight fish again.
Wednesday was a switch to the Lower Atnarko crew for a day. Blair also switched over since yesterday had been so long and, like me, he’s not as young as the rest of the crew are. We don’t bounce back quite so fast 🙂
The Lower Atnarko starts the same way, but the drive to the two sites is only half as long. We leave a truck and transport tank at Belarko, near where the Provincial bear watching site is located. Then we all pile into the second truck and head up to a private road into Pacey’s place. Pacey is some wealthy fellow from Calgary who has a magnificent log house high on the bank above the Atnarko River. He lets the hatchery crew use his property as a launch site and it’s helpful because guides and tourists can’t get up there. It’s an easier launch than the Upper Atnarko; the gear doesn’t have to be carried far before its in the water.
When we crossed the river to walk up to the first set site, we heard yelling from above, Pacey warning us about a bear and her cub, in the aspens on the island we’d crossed to. We could see nothing through the thick growth, but the carcasses of fish that yesterday’s crew had spawned were roughly covered in sand, and that indicated an aggressive bear intending to return for the food. We moved upriver and crossed over, and we skipped that set spot on the way back down. Though we didn’t see a bear, there was fresh evidence that she was there with her cub. It was clear that there was a baby monster close by.
A few more sets, a few more fish, a stock assessment helicopter flyover, a bit of rain, and a few more bears rounded out the second day on the river.
The last bear we encountered was a little too inquisitive for our comfort, it clearly could smell the fish that we’d left on the bank after the previous set, just upriver from where we were now. It walked the far bank, coming out to the end of a log poking into the river to look us over before walking back down the bank. Katie was tired and cold, having taken a dunk earlier and worn out from being wet all day. She picked up two rocks and started banging them together; the sharp pitch they made clearly bothered the bear and it crossed the river below where Jason and Liam were standing in the river holding the net. As the divers started to drift the net, the bear crossed back halfway, putting us to a stop once more. We all started banging rocks and yelling at it, so it finally wandered downriver towards the bear viewing platform, they would be happy about a bear anyway.
When we finished the last set and pulled out at Belarko, two groups of tourists arrived from a rafting adventure. Right out of their vehicle they were treated to us running fish up to the truck, and then to a bear walking out of the bush directly across from the boat launch. Perfect day for them 🙂
At the end of the day it was back to the hatchery, fertilize and put the eggs to bed, then get cleaned up and join a potluck dinner being held at the hatchery with a few of the staff. A pretty awesome end to a pretty awesome day 🙂
