Monday, June 21, 2010

A hike and a bear

In Whistler for the week we did a hike today to Cheakamus Lake. Pretty gradual ups and downs and not that long, less than five miles round trip - just right for us right now. The water volume at the outflow of the lake was amazing; at the end of the lake the flat water was moving at walking speed or faster. It's a huge volume of water flowing. (The write up at the link has a much longer distance, but the difference is walking the length of the lake!)

Cheakamus Lake and River are the valley immediately south of Whistler Mountain and Musical Ridge, I think it's called, with Piccolo Peak, Flute Peak and Oboe Peak, then Singing Pass.

Back in the car, driving down the road, two men were on the edge of the road with their cameras aimed at a tree near the road. I stopped and asked what they saw. They responded "Right there in the tree." I got out and looked: "huh?"

"A bear." When he moved lots of branches moved; couldn't see him yet. The foliage was very thick. Then he broke a large branch off. Then I saw him. In the shadows on the gray day he looked pure black. I got a good look, but by the time I got my IPhone out he was out of sight. Not that the IPhone could have gotten a good photo. I have never before seen a bear in a tree.


The photo is from Nova Scotia, found on the Internet.

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