Death- Bears. Mountains.

I often ponder whether I have forgotten over 99.99% of things I have done and experienced in life. It also amazes me how memories of others could be as vivid as what just happened... before yesterday (since I don't have much recollection about what happened yesterday. lol 8-X)

It has been almost over 10 years ago since I was at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

One of my suitemate, Brian, was a graduate student in Forestry.

Brian used to drive all the way north into the mountains to collect data on studies examining the impacts of forest overcut on the ecology or environment.

One day, around 13 years ago, I asked whether I could go along with him into the mountains and he gladly granted my request.

After hours and hours of driving on the scenic highway 99, passing the mountains including the whistler region, we finally arrived at this valley where, there was no other people but the two of us-- for the trees were all gone and so were people....

We hiked up the hill to reach the experimental stations to download data of the temperature onto his laptop. There were 3 stations on each side of the valley on the hill.

While he was downloading his data, I leisurely looked around... and, down the hill, I saw these furry kinda moving objects.

I looked much more carefully again before interrupting him by saying something like...

"Are those bears?"

Brian looked towards the direction I was pointed at and he replied with something like...

"They are a mama bear and two cubs. Just keep your eyes on them to keep track of where they are."

He also added to my knowledge that bears have really good sense of smell. Since the two of us were definitely the only two human intruders in the whole region and we were up on the hill, they must have smelled us.

He, then, went back to his work while I stood there watching them bears climbing up the hill getting closer to where we were until, finally, I lost sight of them, and, such, I had Brian informed.

When Brian was done with that station, he packed up his laptop and we moved towards the opposite direction where the next station was.

There, I kept on looking but I did not see the mama with the cubs anymore. Rather, I saw a few... maybe 3 big bears down in the valley and, such have I, Brian, informed as well.

Brian looked and confirmed what I have seen. Then, he resumed with his work on downloading data as well as resetting and maintaining the equipments at the station.

After he was done with that station, he carefully packed up his gadgets and, with extreme sincerity and seriousness, he said to me...

"Ratprincess..." (actually he was calling my real name)

"Ya?" I replied.

"Run! Run! Run for your life!!!"

Then, he started running towards the opposite direction where the mama and baby bears were seen.

Where we were, there was no trail and we just keep on running as fast as we could through the weeds and rocky land... until, at a certain point, Brian stopped and said to me...

"There are two options we have here. We could turn uphill here and eventually we could hit the trial. Or, we could turn downhill from here although there is no road."

I looked at him and said, "I am not gonna climb up the hill at this point to meet them bears on the trail. Let's go down..."

The road downhill actually did not involve too much of moving using my legs. The slope was so steep that, although I was able to manage to "climb" down using my two feet for a bit of distance, the act of balancing seemed to have slowed down my speed. Ended up, at a certain point, I basically was sliding down the hill on my butts using gravity as the driving force propelled with my two hands to increase the speed....

Then, the slope came to an end when we encountered a small creek where both of us tumbled in...

We eventually got down the hill and found our way to the trail...

It was one of the longest mile I have walked because, every time, when the wind blows, the weeds alongside swung and made sound... which would give me a scare... thinking coming out of the bushes-- the bear attacks...

I still recall clearly what I could not stop thinking about since Brain said to me, "Run for your life!!!"

I thought about this man that I loved so dear and, between the times when I was trying to focus on keeping myself in one piece rolling down the hill, I said to his image in my mind...

"(Jackass), I will, at least, see you again... (Jackass), I will get down and, at least, see you for the last time..."

(and, how impious for me not be thinking about my daddy and mommy.... oops... in the age of the Young Werther kinda sorrow...)

So we finally got back to Brian's car and I thought that would be the end of data collection.

Yet, Mr. Scientifically Based Research drove a bit and, again, stopped...

Apparently, there were still a few stations down in the valley where them other bears were hanging out. While I anxiously looked around for them bears, fearing for the circumstances, Brian took his time, got his data, and tried to fortify the station so the bears would not come and screw the experiments up.... 8-O lol

By the time we got back to the car again, the night had fallen upon the valley.

As the car started moving, my tensed nerve finally had a sense of relief... and, I turned to Brian and asked..

"Are there still bears moving around now?"

Confidently, Brian replied, "No, the bears wake up when the sun goes up and rest when the sun goes down..."

It was almost before he could have the sentence completed did he hit the break....

Right in front of the car, we saw, a bear, us, stared at while, at him, both of us, in return, stared.

"Don't move." Brian said while I had no intention to move anyway.

Yet, I think, we did take the time to roll the windows up...

The bear stood there for a bit and started moving around in front of the car...

Then, the bear started walking towards my side and took a century-long look inside through the window next to me...

Neither Brian nor I made a move--- long after... through peripheral vision we sensed that the bear, into the dark, its peregrination, continued.

So, the car got started again.... we drove through a bridge, out of the valley, out of the mountains, and, another century later, we finally hit an intersection where, for the first time, we saw light--- traffic lights, an indication that we were out of the animal nation.

Brian stopped the car at the gas station in front of the 7-11.

For the first time after we resumed our trip out of the valley, someone spoke....

"I am going to get some coffee." Brian said.

"I also need a coffee." I replied.

Thereafter, the remaining of the trip home remained to be mostly silent...

Regardless how much I claim myself to love nature, after getting my face so closed next to a bear at large, although divided by the car window, despite them bears are only black bears, never did I volunteer to go into the mountains with Brian again (who, in another trip, in a winter’s night, on his way out with his girlfriend, stepped on a bear hibernating.... lol)