Bears – My Photos and Stories

How can you not love bears? From Theodore Roosevelt’s Teddy Bears to Winnie the Poo to Gentle Ben, all warm and cuddly….or not.

Everyone who knows me knows that I love Moose…but then there are BEARS and I also dearly love bears. We have had a lot of encounters with bears but surprisingly I do not have a lot of photos. I think sometimes I am too shocked to take the picture lol. Plus they are very fast, they usually run away pretty quick. Couple of quick facts: Black bears are about the size of humans; approximately 100-180 pounds. They are solitary and have few predators and are basically just awesome.

We have been followed by a bear on a bike path, had them in our trailer campsites, our back country campsites and had the pleasure of seeing some super cute little cubs over the years.

Below is the young bear, maybe 2 years old who followed us on a bike trail in Algonquin Park. We got off our bikes and walked our bikes and he followed. We did not ride our bikes away, he may have given chase, you never run from a bear… although sometimes the urge is strong lol. Anyways after a few minutes, we made a lot of noise and he took off.

Another time, we had been out paddling our canoe all day and came home for a beer and a rest. We were sitting in our chairs reading, and drinking, and I happened to look up and there he was! So close, that is another pretty good story.

We used to do a lot of back country camping or interior camping whichever you prefer. We had one trip that we called the Summer of the Bears. We were with my sister and her husband and we canoed/portaged into Pen Lake in Algonquin Park. There was a mom bear and two cubs and they were making the rounds around that lake. We had them in our site every day and I talked about this summer in another Blog Post. https://trumstravels.com/2017/05/30/bear-stories/ Pretty interesting trip I’d say! So below are the photos of the mom bear in one of our camps and also how we hang our food barrel, (we call it a food bucket). And another photo showing her teaching the young cubs to climb trees. It is not a great photo but it was darkish and we were scared lol

If you aren’t sure what back country or interior camping is you can check out some of my other posts. https://trumstravels.com/2019/10/07/back-country-canoe-trips-part-11-2011/

https://trumstravels.com/2019/09/16/back-country-canoe-trips-part-9-2009/

Now in the province of Ontario we have lots of Black Bears. We also have Polar Bears way up north, like WAY up north, around Hudson Bay. Now I always thought we did not have Grizzly Bears in Ontario; however, I was lately reading a 2019 research paper that indicated it would not be surprising to see Grizzlies in Northern Ontario, again WAY up in northern Ontario. There are Grizzlies in the province of Manitoba, which borders our province, and there has been indications they may have crossed the border. I mean come on, they are GRIZZLIES, they can go where they want! The only Grizzlies I personally have seen was in Denali National Park . We were in a tour bus, which is the only way you can get into the park, and I spotted a mom and 2 cubs, way off in the distance so I got one or two pics as the bus sped past. Again, they were far away and it was through a window but still…

While in Fairbanks, Alaska, we had a mom bear and cubs traipsing around our campground. Well the mom was, the cubs didn’t come out of the bushes.

If you have never seen a bear trap, here is one below. This one was set up about 4 campsites down from our campsite at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park. They set it up as there was a “nuisance” bear in the campground. Don’t even get me started on nuisance bears, more like nuisance people.

I write about this in another Blog Post, https://trumstravels.com/2020/12/09/wildlife-photography-do-you-have-a-code-of-ethics/

I write about “getting the shot” vice respecting wildlife. And in my Post, there are stories about different animals and the way their lives end up because they are “nuisances”. Very sad.

Anyways in this particular instance, they did catch the bear in the trap and no more bear.

We have been to the province of Alberta a few times and you can see lots of bears there, usually alongside the road. They have some good looking bears in Alberta. I cannot wait to go out there again, it’s probably my favourite province, or one of them anyways.

And just in case you are wondering, I did not get out of the truck while taking photos of this Alberta bear.

A couple of years ago we were so fortunate to spot these four cuties and their mom crossing the road in front of us. Then they all climbed a tree.

So that is that. I have more photos and stories but pretty sure you have had enough of bears this time, hopefully I can see some bears and get some more photos this summer.

Take care.