Williams Lake
No question about it, a little nostalgia is a nice thing. And that’s exactly what we experienced on a night out in Williams Lake, British Columbia.
Williams Lake is located on the land of the T’exelcemc First Nations people in the BC interior. It is probably best known for its log homes made famous by the hit TV show Timber Kings, its rocking Canada Day Stampede, or the fact that its the home of Rick Hansen, the paraplegic athlete and activist. Fun fact. I spent my teenage years attending Rick Hansen Secondary School, albeit in Abbotsford not Williams Lake.
The city of Williams Lake is nestled beside the actual lake and receives over 2000 hours of sunshine a year. Although the lake beckons recreational use, I was told most locals prefer splashing around in other lakes in the surrounding area. That may explain why I only saw ducks and geese using it when I was there. The backyard of Williams Lake is the stunning Cariboo Chilcotin region, which is a mecca for wildlife and outdoor recreation, including world-class mountain biking.
We were there for the bears. But, before we donned our camo, we spent the day cruising around the area and even had a night out on the town.
After a morning coffee at The Bean Counter, we drove to the spectacular Farwell Canyon Hoodoos and hiked to the Sand Dunes — the largest of their kind in BC. From there, we enjoyed elk sliders and brisket at the town's oldest pub, The Laughing Loon, washing it all down with local craft brew from the wildly popular Fox Mountain Brewing Company.
Next, we hit up cosmic bowling at Caribou Bowling Lanes. It was Friday night in Williams Lake after all. And here is where the nostalgia kicked in. It cost only $17 for 5 people to bowl, and that... well, that was just a nice throwback to the good ol’ days when I was a kid, and bowling with the family didn’t break the bank.
Alas, the lanes shut down at 9:00pm, along with most of the town, and the quietness of the picturesque location settled in. A quick drive around allowed us to enjoy the late summer sun. We passed colourful murals and signature timber-framed homes (aka log cabins) and finishes, exemplifying Williams Lake’s attention to detail, in the old and the new, through its support of construction and the arts and culture.
It was well worth an extra day to spend time in this little BC gem, and next time around we’ll have to hit the bike trails
BEAR HUNT
As spring blooms throughout the province of British Columbia, the flowers blossom, the grass turns green, the rivers swell, and the bears emerge from their dens. There are over 120,000 black bears in BC’s wilderness; their habitats range from mountain tops to coastlines, and forests to ranch lands. They are the province's most widely distributed mammal. In the spring, black bears prey on young deer, elk, moose and caribou, but they also feed on the grasses that sprout alongside logging roads and in cut blocks (an area recently logged).
Bears mostly live where human populations are low. Where we we’re hunting, in the vast and mountainous watershed outside of Williams lake, there are more animals than people.
Bear meat makes fantastic sausages and burger. The tenderloin is delicious and the hearts, livers and bone marrow are all also useful for those living off wild game. They are the only animal allowed to be hunted in the spring. If fall stores of other wild game are running low post winter, it can be a crucial time to put food on the table and into storage to last through the summer.
That said, having had a fear of bears my whole life, hunting a black bear proved a strange experience. All my life I’d done everything I could to not run into a black bear, and here was Ryan pushing me do just the opposite. This wasn’t vengeance, nor was it an aim to overcome a fear; but, silently strolling a cut block provided much time to contemplate just how absurd the situation was. Did I actually want to run into one? If I did, could I react in time to successfully hunt or, heaven forbid, protect myself?
Of course, as most fears do, mine lived as a fiction I’d conjured up based on headlines of fatal bear attacks I’d heard or seen in the news. In reality, black bears want nothing to do with you. Which makes the whole “hunting” part more challenging.
After a long, cold, wet and snowy winter, the spring sun was out in full force during our bear hunt. The bugs, thankfully, were not. We had shacked up at a nice cabin on a lake, and took a four-wheel drive to and from cut blocks to Poplar Groves looking for bear signs. This meant we didn’t need to haul loads of gear around and, once at a fixed location, it was almost like taking a leisurely stroll through the woods. Except with the intention of stumbling across a big ol’ black bear!
At times, the dead quiet was eerie and, more than once, we stumbled upon moose, mule deer and a skunk. The bears were out as well. All in all, we saw 7 bears, as well as the fresh scat of a grizzly bear sow and her cubs.
Although Ryan was his usual calm and composed self, my nerves played games with me throughout the hunt. Every burnt log was a bear. Every bend in the road was filled with trepidation.
After a long day without any success, we found ourselves lost atop a mountain that had been scarred by a forest fire the previous year. And, in the last light of day, when bears are their most active, that’s when the action rose from zero to an 100. With Ryan at my side, the moment of truth presented itself.