Only the second time she has met Jeff Rennicke, Brandy left her cubs with
us and disappears around the point.
Biscuit strides into the lake to fish for salmon.
Her technique is to chase the salmon towards shore and she then, like
a cutting horse she does not let them back out into the deep water.
Eventually the fish tires and Biscuit pounces on them. - Jeff is actually
OK looking, but too interested and preoccupied to show his face.
(Click on any Image to see a higher resolution version)
I have had a difficult time writing my part of this web page this year.
Maureen and I are doing a companion photo book to Grizzly Heart.
There is not a lot of words in this second book but we are putting a lot
of thought into the few there are. Captions are time consuming as well.
We are also making sure we have all the photos we need by the end of this
season and except for choosing the slides our part is being done from
this cabin. Enough excuses.
The summer has been fantastic with the bears. Biscuit is now bigger than
Brandy, even though she is about half her age. I have a difficult time
judging how much she weighs but my guess is that she is five hundred pounds
with another 75 to 100 more to go before she dens up. This makes her interesting
to be around when she comes up to you. She and I still do our nose to
nose greeting when we haven't seen each other for a day or more. Usually
it is a storm that causes our separation, but I just saw her by chance
15 minutes ago.
It is pouring rain and there is a very strong wind coming up the river
which is unusual, so I check the Kolb quite often to make sure the tie
downs are secure. On my last trip down the hill, Biscuit came walking
along the beach and looked over the electric fence at what I was doing.
She is magnificent, her new fur coat looked almost dry and her eyes were
bright as though the raging storm was a terrific reason to be out for
a walk. When I went back up to get out of the storm in the cabin, she
came up past me, going by my hip at full speed and down the trail towards
the creek. Maureen and I are very careful to just stop when we hear her
coming (her feet are as loud as a galloping horse) and not try to step
out of her way when she does this high speed run-by, for fear of accidentally
stepping in front of her and being clobbered. Maureen got a start earlier
this summer when Biscuit slipped on a slimy, algae coated rock on the
lakeshore and fell against her leg. Luckily Biscuit was only walking by
that time. She has long legs and runs places often (more than other bears).
It seems to correspond to her being happy.
For reason of complexity and expense, very few people come here. When
it does happen, one interesting observation to make is watching how the
bears respond to strangers, and I don't mean whether they eat them or
not. The only person this year to make it was Jeff Rennicke, a writer
with Backpacker Magazine. Unlike the previous person to come here,
Jeff was instantly accepted. You would have thought they all had grown
up together. They wouldn't let the person before him within fifty meters
for quite some time and even then, Biscuit would make a deep rumble. Brandy
had the same, distinct responses to both individuals which would indicate
that they were picking up on the same things. Jeff had some interesting
ideas about it. He thinks there are several things they watch for and
if they all fit then the bears relax. Any one of the things they use to
measure you by could set off alarm bells, he thought. I suppose it is
common sense. We all probably do the same thing in judging people, or
should at least.
- Charlie