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During the first week of June, we joined Kevan for some early morning wildlife viewing. The first thing we noticed was the amazing mountain scenery but quickly we discovered signs that bears were in the neighbourhood. Based on the tracks and scat we found, and based on his experience, Kevan could tell us, by approximation, the animal's age, his direction of movement and which kind of food it had eaten. The marks on the trees indicated that we were dealing with a male bear: the bear had bitten off the bark of the tree and rubbed its body against the trees, leaving a harmon scent behind for other male and female bears to know he was around. Then the most amazing thing happened. While we continued driving down the road, we suddenly noticed two Grizzly bears right in front of us (about 30 meters or so), walking in our direction. Apparently, it was a male and female and they didn't noticed us until there was only about 10 meters left between the pair and us. The reason why they didn't notice us is that the wind was blowing in the opposite direction so they couldn't smell us and the sound of the water in the creek besides them prevented them from hearing us. Needless to say, this was a great time to take our camera's out for some pictures. After we took our pictures the bears noticed us and they ran off into the bushes. We were left behind, speechless in our truck.
On our way back to the ranch, we stopped to watch some mountain goats. There was this herd just sitting and grazing on the cliffs of the South Chilcotin Mountains. Then we decided to head back home with the sun as our guide. Magnificent!
