October 21 2002

UNBC Students love hunting

By Liam Partitt

There is something about
the start of spring. The first few
days of sunshine and warm
weather always bring the
promise of unhindered walking
in the forest, and the awaken-
ing of life around us. After four
‘months of sleep in the deep
rocky~mountain winter most
bears come eut of hibernation
in early April, smeil_the sun-
shine and taste the first tender
shoots of spring.

It was one of those days, in
the middle of April when | first
saw his tracks. Close to the
Fraser river, set in thick mud
that would have been covered
in ice scant weeks before. April
is the best time to find any-
thing in the thick undergrowth
of the interior wet belt, espe-
cially antler sheds. | generally
walk the ridges close to the
river in this time to find out who
| share my little patch of par-
adise with. These weren't griz-
zly tracks, as near as | could
tell, although they were large
and suddenly | felt small in the
forest. Shaking off such silly
fears | continued my walk with-
out much luck in finding sheds,
although the fantastic views
were more than a just reward
for my effort.

| have never been a real
bear hunter, more of a dabbler.
My grandfather is a farmer and
to both him and my father a
bear is more of a nuisance
than a legendary creature of
the forest.-But | thought of
those tracks for the next 2
weeks, before giving in to pur-
chase my bear tag.

A month passed and the
leaves were coming in when |
finally caught a glimpse of him.
There were several other
bears around and they fasci-
nated me to watch in the grow-
ing light of spring. Rarely
would an evening would go by
without a long glimpse of a
smaller single bear and a mom
with two of the tiniest cubs one
could imagine. Often white-tail
does would share the same
small meadow as they gorged
on the green grass that comes
in so plentiful in our rich clay
loam river bottom land. He was
significantly bigger than any
other bear in the area and |
held him in my sights, fascinat-
ed and unwilling to end such
an exquisite moment with the
jarring report of a rifle.

Twenty minutes passed in
the setting of the sun and that
sudden switch of wind that so
often occurs as cold air begins
draining down back into the
main trench, unfortunately
bringing my large friend a
good sniff of whatever nasty
smell | was wearing that
evening. My confidence in the
meeting lasting forever was
shattered as the brute disap-
peared into the thick willow

~and alder on the outside of my

clearing..Although | returned
every evening-until the 15th of
June rolled aroundt+was not
given another glimpse of that
king of the large cedars.

A year passed as they will,
the excitement of the coming
of fall and the sweet smell of
yellow leaves and early morn-
ings in the cold November rain
making me forget my black
king of the woods in place of
other magnificent emperors of
the tall spruce. My secret bear
spot became my secret white-
tail spot and produced a beau-
tiful mule buck for me as well.
And with many good -memo-
ries and great reluctance |
stored my rifle away for anoth-
er 5 months.

The winter passed as |
attended my forestry program
at UNBC, returning to our little
cabin to cross-country ski and
howl with the abundant
wolves. | wondered where my
brute was sleeping, tucked in
cozy under some monstrous
cedar tree dreaming of blue-
berries and honey.

One evening in that time of
the year when roads can be
driven for parts of the day |
thought | would check out an
evening walk before returning
to Prince George to write my
last final exam of the semes-
ter. As the mud on the road
down to the walk had been
gradually thawing and unthaw-
ing to create an unpassable
quagmire, | was lucky enough
to make it to the bottom of the
road. Being young (and still
being young) | was somewhat
overconfident in the capacity
of my truck to navigate the par-
tially frozen road. On the way
back up | realized my mistake,
leaving my truck for the five
kilometer walk back to the
cabin in hopes of getting up
early enough to catch a ride
out on the morning frost.

| slept poorly that night,

thinking of the exam that | was
supposed to write at 9 in the
morning. By six o’clock it was
-1 and | ran the 6 kilometers to
my truck as the sun melted my
hopes of getting out. | tried my
best but ended up with both
differentials buried in the mud.
As | tracked my way down the
three kilometers to my neigh-
bor’s house | kept wondering
what | would tell my teacher to
let me take the exam late.
Halfway there and close to the
river again | stopped dead in
my tracks. There he was, and
instantly it was all worth it.
Standing up about 50 meters

‘trom_me was my bear. White

spot omhis chest and all,
unmistakable “and gloriously
soaking up the brilliant. April

sunshine. He was quickly on.

the go again and a rifle was
not something | was packing.
In that moment all thoughts of
the missed exam flew from my
head like the morning frost in
the sun. | was grateful for the
pancakes | was served as |
waited for the pick-up and the
winch to arrive at my neigh-
bors. | hardly noticed the clock
said 10:30 when | finally
reached the highway carrying
more mud that iron on the
undercarriage of the old
dodge.

5 days later as | wrote my
make-up test | couldn’t help
but feel it was worth it just to
see him. A month after our
visit by he river | left the wetter
parts of the Rocky Mountains
to chase fish around Golden.
After a week and a bit of
superb fishing, and a little
mountain climbing, | returned
to the cabin. And there to my
surprise were large tracks in
the driveway. He had paid me
a visit while | was away. Later
that day while | was eating din-
ner and enjoying the sun going
down on the Rocks | noticed
that there was a print of a large
bear on the window. He had
also rummaged through a few
things, and moved a deer rack
into the forest. | try to keep a
clean cabin to reduce unnec-
essary interactions with bears
in an unnatural environment.
But he had definitely paid a
visit while | was away.

TO BE CONTINUED:

Read the exciting conclusion
in the November 4th issue of
Over The Edge

Over The E

Parker, Computer
Science/Physics:
“A man hanging upside
down playing with two yo-
yos.”

Adam, Resource
Recreation/Tourism:
“One of those guys on the rings.
You know, those rings.”

“A juggling
clown.”

Jeremy, Political Science/First
Nations Studies:
“A weight lifter, big tall dude, like
myself, with some crazy hair.

Carolynne
(Pyschology) and
| Stu (Undeclared):
| “A juggling grasshop-
jper / inverted umbrel-

Kristin, Business:
“An upside down dancing person with
drumsticks.”

Brad, Computer
Science:
“A decapitated
grasshopper”

John, Forestry:
“| don’t see anything.”