Grizzlied

The rest week after 24 hrs was pretty perfect. Fishing, camping, hiking and hanging in hammocks up in the mtns. That was until friday night when Lilla and I were returning to camp around dusk only to find a Grizzly in our way.

After some yipping from our golden retriever dog, and some yelling by us we managed to really piss the old grizz off and he charged at us through the willows only to stop 15 ft from us to growl and let out his outrage in hair rasing noises. Slightly intimidated we opted to backtrack down the trail to give the beast his space. The only problem was he started to follow, charging through the bush, stopping just short of us to let out his outrage again. After a few minutes of this it got to the point that we were either going to have to keep this up for another 60 km back to civilization or else try to get past the cranky thing to my truck which was only 500 m away.

I opted fro Plan B, Lilla probably disagreed, but she followed as we road back at the Grizz who was just out of sight in the willows beside the road. Once we got past him, old grizz started running beside us in the bush then onto the road behind us and over onto the other side of the road. I gave Lilla my best thought out advice. "Don't Fall!" "NO SHit" I think was her response. With the truck in sight and the dog already under neath it, Lilla and I hopped in and watched as the bushes and trees were trampled away only 30 ft in front of the truck. The Grizz would never come out and show himself, but we had a standoff with him in the woods growling for 15-20 min as we sat belittled in our truck. Eventually our friend got tired and wandered off up the mtn, letting off one last angry freakish noise as he faded into the night.

Our problem now was to either return home with a 2 hr drive, or to risk the 7 minute hike through the dense bush to get to the hut. We made the hike in 4 minutes. Dog in tow.

The next day the Sun was up, Grizz was no where to be seen and life was pretty good again...

Tonight we are down in Fernie gettting ready for the TransRockies to kickoff tommorow. I will try to defend my TR3 Solo title I won last yr. This is probably a pipe dream with top World Cup racers Adam Craig (Giant), Max Plaxton (Specialized), and Carl Decker (Giant), on the start list but I will I empty the tank trying.

After the TR3 finishes off I will be sticking around to cover the final 4 days of the TransRockie Team event as it finishes off in Canmore next Saturday.

Starting tommorow, reports will be up at http://www.sleepmonsters.com/