Animal Attacks in Grizzly Country!

At the start of this week, we set off with our new tent for our first overnight hike in Canada. These are some of the recent reviews of the hike/destination that we read before setting off.

Being scared Brits, we made sure to tell our friends where we were heading and when they could expect a text from us to confirm our safety. Before we made any new furry friends, we got to put Elsie through her paces on a 1 hour 4×4 drive up a forestry service road to the trail head. Although slow, she passed with flying colours, safely delivering us to the eager bears.

Standard advice is to make a lot of noise when hiking in bear country, as they are most likely to attack when surprised. We can tell you it is tiring hauling a pack with camping gear uphill and trying to talk/whistle/sing all the time! After a few hours we arrived at tranquil Tenquille lake. 

We had only met one group of people coming down on our way up, and there was just one pair camping at the top. We tried to camp as close as possible to them for safety, but without being too creepy. We managed to select a spot right next to the water with a beautiful view. Being at altitude meant temperatures got quite cold overnight, about -2 degrees, but luckily our sleeping bags were quite snuggly. Rosie did wish she had another set of leggings on and Ollie was glad she made him put on more than just a t-shirt and shorts as pyjamas! 

Having survived the night, we realised we were probably over anxious about an imminent bear attack/death and were slightly more relaxed. After a standard breakfast of mildly burnt porridge, thanks to our lightweight pans, we set off back down. We decided to listen to an audio book on loud speaker, not only to educate ourselves, but also so we didn’t have to incessantly talk to each other anymore. This lulled us into a false sense of security and, just when we least expected it, Ollie was attacked… by either a wasp or bee, we can’t be sure. Rosie can only hope that he recovers from the slight swelling below his eye. We saw no bears on the walk, only poop and paw-prints.

After hiking down, we planned to go to a free campsite run by BC hydro, similar to the one we mentioned in a previous blog post, but it was closed due to COVID. Luckily we are using a fairly good app called iOverlander to find places to sleep, so managed to find a campsite that was a reasonable drive away. The drive was spectacular, which we hadn’t quite expected. 

After spending the night at the campsite we spent a lazy day at Kamloops Lake, where we saw multiple ridiculously long Canadian cargo trains, before driving to our next workaday. It is situated in one of the driest places in Canada, it’s actually a desert! Surprise, surprise, it is another organic farm and we should be here for a week before going on to visit Thom and Hannah, who have moved to a place called Sun Peaks. Contrary to Ollie’s initial thoughts, this is not a retirement home (they are still in their 20s, just…) but a much cooler ski resort. We are sure we will be jealous of their new home right at the bottom of mountain biking and skiing runs…well Ollie will be anyway.