| Author |
Topic |
|
 Herbal tea drinkin, tree huggin, view seeking, tortoise paced, ultralite wannabe
Vancouver, BC
Canada
2847 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2007 : 9:17 PM
|
One of those spur of the moment trips with my friend. Ok, the weather looks good, where shall we go.
"How about Minnekhada?" I suggest.
"Geez, I haven't been there for years!" she says.
"Well?" I ask again.
"Sure, why not?!" she accedes.
So that's where we went. I was following directions to the TH from my old 109 Walks, 3rd ed. We get there and I have to like use a washroom so bad that...And I don't see one in the parking lot and she says, we always parked at the lodge and there's one there. So I take out the book, look at the map and make my way to the lodge, following road signs too. Lodge isn't open but there's a volunteer gardener who directs me to the pit toilet in the picnic area and I'm saved. Ahhhh, there's even toilet paper there. Trails say Bear in area and I think yeah, right, in this place?! NOT. With all the people here if there's a bear nearby, and I doubt it, it will be making itself very scarce.
So we wandered around. Up to lower knoll. Back down. Then to upper knoll and back down and around and on the way down to the marsh crossover, we run into well, you guessed it, a mama bear and her cub. Now I'm not too worried because all I saw was a bear crashing into the woods off the trail but I was behind my friend, Tara, and she saw the cub, too. Of course, she didn't tell me that until later. I hear the bear hiding just few feet off the trail and making low grunting noises and I think, no big deal. I make some loud noises, whistle a few times, don't think anything and then motion that we can continue. So we do and no problems but a moment or two later several teenage girls on bikes come heading to where we just were so I stop them and inform them about the bear. They decide to try for it but 2 minutes later they come tearing back down. Bear and cub are back on the trail and they are not about to deal with it!
Wander about a bit more and run into other people who have had encounters of the bear kind. One woman was walking the trail just watching her feet and all of a sudden she heard a noise, looked up and was face-to-face with the bear, like less than a metre apart and literally staring at each other. She said the bear turned and ran and she did the same and then her friends didn't believe that she'd seen one but since we saw it, they were now believing her. So if you do go to Minnekhada, watch out for the bear and her cub.
With all the ups and downs there, you can get a pretty nice low level workout on those trails and it's a pretty park. Just thought I'd remind people about it again 
Afterwards, we headed down to New West to wander around a bit and get some more elev and a bite to eat.
My camera card crapped out and lost half of the pics I took so here's some of the ones that made it off the card onto the computer.
               
Right after the flowers in pic 5 is where the bears were. I was finishing taking the picture when Tara ran into them and I saw the mama take off, not the cub.
Last pic is from the court in New West. |
|
296 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2007 : 9:52 PM
|
| I was in Minnekhada the day after, May 22. It was a beautiful walk but all the time I had an eerie feeling that there was a bear somewhere close by. I'm glad you posted this TR now, because I would not have gone there had I read about your experience. It's a pretty park. |
|
|
|
Outward Bound author of the Seinfeld Thread, who builds his own snowshoes
Troy, MT
USA
3140 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2007 : 10:22 PM
|
yep, always bears in there. my dad and I take our dog for walks all the time in the summer (at the dykes next to the blueberry farms, not into the trails) and you can usually find 3 or 4 a night and several deer. its also funny seeing people who are scared of them.
good TR |
|
|
296 Posts |
Posted - 05/27/2007 : 10:21 AM
|
Now I'm thinking I should go cycling at the dykes for the bear/deer photo op  |
|
|
 | Dru
Mountain Grammar Police
|
Sardonic sandbagging scoundrel, Cascade Climbers lobotomized spraymeister, space blanket flyer, new millennium vulgarian betaboy and friend to all squids
Climbing, a mountain
Canada
∞ Posts |
Posted - 05/27/2007 : 10:55 AM
|
i'd rather have a "dare beer" photo op  |
|
|
296 Posts |
Posted - 05/27/2007 : 11:37 AM
|
| How about a dare bear photo op and a strong beer, dear. |
|
|
Coquitlam, British Columbia
Canada
1727 Posts |
Posted - 05/27/2007 : 1:40 PM
|
no bear photo...shame...pics come before all...at least they should...  |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
|
|
CT Lite? Minnekhada park May 21/2007
