When I first came to Canada I kept a list of yearly bear sightings, with numbers around 12 or 15 each year. I haven’t kept record lately, but this year it seems worth starting up again.
On a drive up to Pemberton in spring I saw four bears grazing on the fresh grass along the highway. That’s where the snow melts first and the grass grows early, so the hungry bears come to the table. There were several more road-side sightings over the next few weeks.
But I had the best (and longest) bear watch experience while para-waiting (for better flying conditions) on launch in Pemberton. First one and then a second bear showed up, doing their best to keep the grass short. Elsewhere people have goats to do this. The second, smaller bear was rather skittish and kept its distance. Pretty cool to watch them feed and interact. At one point Pete came in on his paraglider for a top landing. He didn’t want to spook the bears and yelled. The yelling didn’t faze the bears, but when the fabric thing flew close over their heads they scrambled off.
A few days later while retrieving the car after a Rainbow Mountain hike&fly in Whistler we watched a bear mum and her three cups inspecting driveways in search of food. We even ‘rescued’ a woman who was walking her dog in the neighborhood. The two had just run into yet another bear. The dog got rather excited and the woman thought it wise to avoid another bear encounter, especially with a mum and her cups, and we loaded dog and lady in the car and drove them to safety.
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| Vegetarian Bear |
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| Supervising the lawn mowing crew |
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| Bear on landing strip |
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| Whistler bear family |
