Surprisingly we have hit our first patch of cloudy weather. We have hit some showers and some overnight rain in spots. It rained last night, and it was cold. This AM we woke not to our usual post rain partly cloudy moving toward sunny day, but low hanging clouds and a morning that threatened rain at any moment would not warm up. We are talking lots of layers that did not come off. We have deferred any hiking plans for a while and are using the late morning to be back at the visitor center (warm, dry & wifi) to catch up on a little Internet activity. We move to Banff tomorrow. Katie and Nate will be here on Saturday!
It looks like most folks with kids (including a large well behaved teenage group) were thinking the same thing. One of the things that Peter Lougheed Park features is a camping area and lodge for special needs families. It is nice to see so many families with special needs children (and young adults) at the visitor center and around the park.
The rains last night gave a dump of snow to the highest peaks we can see when the cloud part for a little bit. We are going to try for Rawson Lake later today and if it looks like a dump of rain there is a shorter trail that features the story of a Canadian Everest Expedition.
(All right, hold it right here, a guy just walked through the lounge area of the visitors center jingle jangling away. No wait now he is circling back through the exhibits, jingle jangle, jingle jangle. I glad he is doing the work of scaring the bears away, but beyond the stuffed grizzly near he entrance, I wonder how many bear he expected to find in here? )
The bear thing is very curious to me. Clearly there is no minimizing the fact that bears live here, they need the large unbroken ranges of forest to have enough land to flourish. It is also true that moving people into areas where bears live increases the chances of contact and contact with adverse effect on one or both parties. It is also proper for park conservationists to use the opportunity as a "teachable moment" and educate visitors to the needs of bears and the things humans can do to avoid adverse contact.
Forty years ago on my first trip to Banff (yeah, yeah, once again, big ups and shout outs to Doug Hammerstrom) we woke in the night to hear big banging sounds. The next morning we found that it wa bears. Two were sleeping up in a tree near our campsite For garbage at that time they used standard dumpsters. The bears figured out that by banging them on the side, they could rock them and if they rocked them hard enough, they could tip them scattering garbage and allowing easy access.
Thirty years ago on another trip, in the same campground, we had all our food for a four day trip out on the picnic table dividing it up. As we turned back to the truck to get something, a black bear walked out of the woods and feasted just on all our trip food shredding all the plastic storage bags.
Things are very different today. There is active bear management by managing humans. Bear proof containers garbage are everywhere. Signs are posted that you are in bear country, that you have to keep a clean camp, that food left unattended is a danger and rangers have the power to confiscate unattended food and take further action. There has not been a place we have stayed while in "bear country" where educational programs on bears have not been standard fare at visitor centers and evening camp programs. As a consequence we do see that tourists are very "bear aware" with bells and whistles and cans of bear spray on their belts. I was surprised at the number of places that would "rent" you a can of bear spray for $5 per day.
As, I tried to tell in one of my stories, we follow the best advice we heard in a ranger talk. Bells give you a false sense of security and can lull you into inattention. We like the active use of bear calls, conversation and singing. Your active response to the situation around you (are you in land where there are ripe berries, are you coming around a blind corner where you might surprise a bear) is a better defense than jingle jangle.
I guess that getting the general tourist a little overhyped on bear etiquette does have the ancillary effect of heightening awareness of bear issues in the mind of the general public. It does seem to exploit the fear factor a bit, and turn the likelihood of bear contact into a bit of a drama. However, if that allows the general public to gain some knowledge of bear management issues that they can take away from the parks, and be mindful of in their life as citizens, a little overkill is OK.
It looks like most folks with kids (including a large well behaved teenage group) were thinking the same thing. One of the things that Peter Lougheed Park features is a camping area and lodge for special needs families. It is nice to see so many families with special needs children (and young adults) at the visitor center and around the park.
The rains last night gave a dump of snow to the highest peaks we can see when the cloud part for a little bit. We are going to try for Rawson Lake later today and if it looks like a dump of rain there is a shorter trail that features the story of a Canadian Everest Expedition.
(All right, hold it right here, a guy just walked through the lounge area of the visitors center jingle jangling away. No wait now he is circling back through the exhibits, jingle jangle, jingle jangle. I glad he is doing the work of scaring the bears away, but beyond the stuffed grizzly near he entrance, I wonder how many bear he expected to find in here? )
The bear thing is very curious to me. Clearly there is no minimizing the fact that bears live here, they need the large unbroken ranges of forest to have enough land to flourish. It is also true that moving people into areas where bears live increases the chances of contact and contact with adverse effect on one or both parties. It is also proper for park conservationists to use the opportunity as a "teachable moment" and educate visitors to the needs of bears and the things humans can do to avoid adverse contact.
Forty years ago on my first trip to Banff (yeah, yeah, once again, big ups and shout outs to Doug Hammerstrom) we woke in the night to hear big banging sounds. The next morning we found that it wa bears. Two were sleeping up in a tree near our campsite For garbage at that time they used standard dumpsters. The bears figured out that by banging them on the side, they could rock them and if they rocked them hard enough, they could tip them scattering garbage and allowing easy access.
Thirty years ago on another trip, in the same campground, we had all our food for a four day trip out on the picnic table dividing it up. As we turned back to the truck to get something, a black bear walked out of the woods and feasted just on all our trip food shredding all the plastic storage bags.
Things are very different today. There is active bear management by managing humans. Bear proof containers garbage are everywhere. Signs are posted that you are in bear country, that you have to keep a clean camp, that food left unattended is a danger and rangers have the power to confiscate unattended food and take further action. There has not been a place we have stayed while in "bear country" where educational programs on bears have not been standard fare at visitor centers and evening camp programs. As a consequence we do see that tourists are very "bear aware" with bells and whistles and cans of bear spray on their belts. I was surprised at the number of places that would "rent" you a can of bear spray for $5 per day.
As, I tried to tell in one of my stories, we follow the best advice we heard in a ranger talk. Bells give you a false sense of security and can lull you into inattention. We like the active use of bear calls, conversation and singing. Your active response to the situation around you (are you in land where there are ripe berries, are you coming around a blind corner where you might surprise a bear) is a better defense than jingle jangle.
I guess that getting the general tourist a little overhyped on bear etiquette does have the ancillary effect of heightening awareness of bear issues in the mind of the general public. It does seem to exploit the fear factor a bit, and turn the likelihood of bear contact into a bit of a drama. However, if that allows the general public to gain some knowledge of bear management issues that they can take away from the parks, and be mindful of in their life as citizens, a little overkill is OK.
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