McNeil Lake

No Picnic

Spotted Towhee



Thu Jun 10th

It's your stomach grumbling Fred thought.  Jack and I knew it was something else.  A briefest grumble, but it had soon passed and we carried on our walk on the Copperhead Trail towards McNeil Haslam Lake.  More later.

This morning it was grey skies again and occasional showers.  With the new property rental starting in less than a month Fred wanted to spend some sourcing key furniture to tide us over until stuff arrives from the UK.  A largely fruitless exercise as so much was out of stock  or on very long delivery times - months!  I used the morning to clear out my password manager of 400 or so redundant passwords.  Next I have to turn my attention to renewing passwords.  A task I am not looking forward to. 

The walk first thing provided pictures of the Spotted Towhee .  I've not see the Barred Owl for a few days, but I'm sure he will be back.

Both in need of the fresh air we drove down to explore the woods and trails leading up to McNeil Haslam Lake.  One we have not yet done.

About a kilometre into the trail we were looking for right turn to take us down to the lake.

'It was not my stomach' I said, as we hiked along the Copperhead trail, and we pressed on.  Jack had been put on the lead about .5k earlier as he was rushing around all over the place, while we were trying to remember the tune and lyrics to Steve Earl's Copperhead Road

We found the turn and headed off down to the lake.  

No more than 50m down the track a movement to our right caught our eye, and Jack's, and a mother Black Bear and two cubs were 15 - 20m away scuttling in our direction.  We called/hauled Jack back and starting backing up.  The mother bear lost interest and started ambling off down the track with cubs in tow, by which time I had my camera out and was snapping away as they disappeared off down the path to the lake.

It happened extremely quickly; too quickly to feel afraid. To quickly to get out the bear bangers or bear spray ie regulation kit for BC trail hikes! (Note to self - have them closer to hand in future and ready to use).

Thank goodness Jack was on the long lead, not that he showed any great intent to rush off after them.  He tends to be largely disinterested in anything larger than a game bird!  We were more elated that we'd actually seen our first bears, though had not anticipated it would be at such close quarters.

It was an amazing sight, a few of the pictures are below. 

 The cubs seemed completely relaxed and rather playful as they followed their mother back in to the woods, perhaps for a picnic?  It was certainly a surprise for us!

It's a shame they are all a rear view, but probably rather good that it was!  It made our day!


The second cub is immediately behind the  mother





The lake when we got to it, backing up and taking a longer route than planned for obvious reasons, was like so many of the lakes we have visited, a stunning setting.  Inevitably Jack went swimming!















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