Barb and the Bears - Part I

My second trip ever as a guide was a hiking trip to Cape Scott, on the northern tip of Vancouver Island. The following is a true account of what actually happened - with the exception of the last paragraph [my cleverness got the better of me].

Our small group returned to the trailhead only to find that one of our vehicles had a flat tire. We could not have guessed the hand that fate had just dealt Wayne and Barb.

Barb and Wayne were husband and wife. They had joined our backpacking trip to Cape Scott at the northern tip of Vancouver Island. Barb had agreed to the hike only after I assured her that our guides had experience handling bear encounters of the third kind. Barb had a fear of bears and, more particularly, being an entree.

Wayne, for his part, wanted to break Barb of her ‘unreasonable’ fear of bears. As part of his program of bear fear rehabilitation, he would toss stones, unbeknownst to the guides or Barb, into the surrounding bush, and proclaim, “What was that?” He reasoned that this action would help calm, and assure Barb that there was no basis for her fear. Ah, the wondrous workings of the male mind! For her part, she viewed any movement or noise from the bush as a ravenous bruin that singled her out for his next snack.

Our week at Cape Scott went without any bear encounters. But, that was all about to change.

Driving the logging road back to the main highway, without a spare, would be a foolish. After changing the flat tire, we decided to head for the nearest town, Holberg, to repair the flat. Holberg is a company logging town with very little in the way of any amenities. As evening was fast approaching, we decided that we would camp on a small grassy park adjacent to the town’s only restaurant and pub. No sooner had we begun to erect our tents that a local appeared. She alerted us that three bears had become nightly visitors to the town. The sound of Barb’s pounding heart was easily discernable above our conversation with the local. We decided that a good meal and a little nightcap at the pub would go a long way in calming Barb. Big mistake!