Bears!

In the employment application for working in Ocean Falls, there were questions about likes and dislikes, namely rain and the great outdoors. There should have been a question about bears. Nothing prepared me for the huge amount of bear encounters that I would have over the next three years.

Although bears hibernate during the colder winter months, they come out in spring as soon as the Salmon Berries are ripe and the mountainsides in Ocean Falls were covered in Salmon Berry bushes. There were actually more stray bears roaming the streets than there were dogs. They became very unwary of people, but the reverse was not true. The mother bears and their cubs were often separated while foraging and it would be a big mistake for a human to come between mother and child in this land of bears. They would become very bold in their endeavour to find enough food to satisfy their ravenous appetites from a winter spent in deep sleep. Even the doors of the houses had to be secured or the bears would walk into the kitchens and help themselves, ransacking the place in the process. Just down the street from us a bear broke through a screen door to go for the fresh chocolate chip cookies cooling on the kitchen countertop. The occupant, upon discovering the bear, simply backed out of the front of the house and left for a while, knowing there would be a mess to clean up later.

Many a night I would come home from work and see the dark shapes on the last 50 ft. of road to my house and in the dim light of the antiquated street light, I would make out up to 5 bears just fooling around, probably waiting for the paper tester to come home. I would then walk back down the 'stairway to heaven' and spend the next hour or so watching TV in the hotel lobby before venturing back home.

Thinking back, it is amazing that during all the hiking we did in the mountains in that area, we never once had an encounter with a bear, or even saw one. I suppose they liked the town because it offered more opportunity for feeding.

My closest encounter was on a rainy morning when I happened to be home. I heard the garbage cans on the back porch rattling and I knew it was bears. I ran to get my camera, which I had just purchased, and peered out the small window beside the porch door. There was a bear cub trying to unhinge the garbage can lid. I knew that the mother would be near so my plan was to open the door a few inches, take a photo, and close the door again before Momma got wind of me. I turned the knob of the door and gently shoved, but nothing happened. My first thought was that the bear cub was leaning against the door and I knew I would be able to push it away. I put my sholder to the door and was just about to peer around it when I looked up and there was Momma looking at me from above, huge paws pushing against the top of the door. Needless to say, I pulled hard on the door, hoping not to pinch any toes in the process, not because I did not want to inflict pain, but because I wanted nothing to stop the door from closing tightly and closing right now!