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I remember one fall; we were paddling up the Cariboo River, heading towards the Babcock portage. As we rounded the corner, we heard a real commotion going on. There were two moose across the river, a cow and her grown calf. The calf was bawling loudly and was about 100 meters downstream from the mother as she was grazing. Slowly the calf wandered to where the mother was feeding and the mother charged the calf. The calf dashed away to safety, 100 meters away. This scene was played out several times over the next half hour.  The calf kept trying to get close to the mother and feed with her and the mother kept charging her and chasing her away. We were stunned. Finally, it hit home. The mother and calf had reached the time to separate. The cow was coming into the rutting season and was ready to have another offspring. The calf seemed very confused. She was also scared and couldn’t understand what was going on. It made me realize how cut and dried things are in the wilderness. There was no place for human sentimentality. The cow was responding to the need to produce another generation of moose. It was strange to leave the scene and not to think about the situation from a human standpoint. I could not imagine just throwing my kids out of my life without any kind of an explanation or plan to make sure they were going to be safe. (Actually, come to think about it, maybe some of us have thought of that during the teen years). I realized that the calf’s education had been completed and she was facing the final exam. My hope was that she would pass. In any event, it was an exceptional scene to witness. It was also the only time I have ever seen it acted out.

I remember one bear, in particular, from the Bowron Lakes. She was a really smart critter. There is a portage that starts at the chute, which is at the outlet of Isaac Lake. It is a trail around an area of the Isaac River that is known as the cascades. Robin ( a female version of Robin Hood-who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor-only she robbed from everyone to eat it herself) worked that portage in the late 70′s. This was when people put their food up on caches. The park rangers had secured platforms high in the trees and provided ladders to access the caches. People would portage their gear from the start of the portage, stash it, and then go back and run the top section of the river in their canoes and then portage their canoes the rest of the way. Robin would hide in the woods and wait for the food to be stored. Now, many people would get lazy and figure that, since the river run was not too long, that they could get away with leaving their food on the ground. Wrong!  Little did they know that Robin was licking her chops in the trees and waiting out the trippers.

Here Comes Lunch

 When the canoeists finally brought their canoes down the path, they were greeted with a scene of carnage. Sometimes, people would set up the ladder and cache their food and fail to take down the ladder. Obviously, they had never seen bears climbing ladders in the circus. They would return to find their gear much lighter. This went on for a couple of years. However, the most  interesting part of the whole story is that, after 2 years, Robin seemed to have moved on. However, later in the year, the same problem arose and the decision was made to remove Robin to a different area. This is when the rangers made an amazing discovery. Robin was not working alone. The rangers discovered that Robin had had a cub and was training  her young offspring exactly how to rob canoeists of their food. They finally had them relocated. Now there are metal containers for the food. They are bear proof. However, if Robin were still around, I’m not so sure that she could figure out how the open them. She was really something.

Each campsite has at least one food cache. These are metal boxes, basically, with a bear proof handle. Since they have been put in the campsites, I have noticed a marked drop in the number of bear encounters in the campsites. When I first went to the Bowron, we were told to hang our food in a tree. This was pretty tricky as the food had to be high and away from the trees. It took a few ropes and lots of time. Then the rangers put logs high up between two trees and they were attached with a metal cable. Then, we just needed to throw our rope over the log and pull up our food and attach the rope to the side of the tree. Sometimes the logs would break under the weight. One time, a fellow was pulling up his food and the logs came down and a bag broke and potato flakes were everywhere and especially over his head. The the bears figured out the system and would bite through the ropes and the bags would come down. Then in the 90′s, they started with the metal boxes. We actually spent a fair bit of time with the rangers talking about the caches and trying to figure out the best system and testing the methods. This was back in the day when the rangers had more duties in the park. I will talk about that on a different occasion. Anyhow, the food caches have been working perfectly and it looks like that problem has been solved.

Here is another edition of changes I have noticed at the Bowron over the last 40 years. One would probably not think that outhouses would make much of an impact. However, the changes to the outhouses are one of the changes that I have really noticed. Here is a picture of the  ‘modern’ outhouses.

They are good but notice that they have doors. Now, at first, everyone would tend to say ,”Well that’s good”. Not so fast. The old outhouses did not have a door. They were made out of beautiful logs that were ripped in halves. They had a sloped shake roof. So three sides were these beautiful logs and the fourth side was totally open. No problems- because they faced away from trails and campsites. So, while one was seated, he or she would be looking out into the woods or over a bit of the lake. Often, one could see little animals or, if they were lucky , big one,s andthey often had great views. For example:

They were also always well aired out. It was a peaceful way to attend to needs and it sure beat reading a magazine.

Ian Larmour has written a good article on taxes. http://ow.ly/3qX41  He talka about the negative implications of high taxes on visitors to  our country.

Many people have asked me if I have noticed many changes at the Bowron since I first canoed there in 1973. I sure have. There have been numerous changes. When I first canoed there, there was no such thing as putting your canoe on wheels. We made 2 trips: one with the canoe on our backs and one with our packs. The portage trails were much rougher. On the portage to Isaac Lake, the last quarter mile was through mud and pools of water. We would walk in the bush beside the trail. Most of the trails were quite muddy. The rangers, who did all the maintenance then, laid logs on the trails. They laid poles for the sides and then ripped logs and laid them sideways across the poles. It made for a dry and welcome trail. The trail from Kibbee to Indian Point was about a third to a half this kind of trail. Today,where the trail is worn, you can see some of the logs beneath the dirt covering. Several years later, they brought in back hoes and filled dirt over all the logs as they were rotting away and breaking underfoot.

Hi, I’m Dean, the owner of Pathways Outdoors.  Check back often as we will be updating this page with the latest news, stories about past trips, and upcoming trips.