Grizzly Bait!

While living in Northern BC a few years ago I met a retired school teacher Lorraine and her husband John. They both came to me for haircuts.  Lorraine told me the following story about a 'grizzly' camping trip they once had.

It was a July weekend, the weather was perfect.  The kids and dog were so excited to be going to their favorite camping spot, at One Island Lake, just outside of Dawson Creek. They packed up their truck and camper trailer, had enough supplies for the weekend, and off they went. About an hours drive from home, they arrived.  And at around 7 pm everything was set up.  They’d eaten supper and were now relaxing around the open fire as the three kids, Danny 3, the twins, Anna and Leah 5, and their little dog Tia, were playing in the sand and water, at the edge of the lake.

As bedtime arrived, everyone was so tired that, getting the kids settled in for the night was not a problem.  By 10 pm everybody was sound asleep.

At about 3 am Lorraine was awakened by what she thought was a scratching noise coming from the left side of the camper, where the girls were sleeping. She opened her eyes and to her absolute horror is looking at the silhouette of a massive, full grown Grizzly Bear, hovering over the two girls!  She jumped up, grabbed the two girls and literally threw them towards her husband John, who was also awake by now.  At this point the Grizzly had disappeared.

John waited a minute before reaching out and pulling the zipper down in the doorway to take a quick look outside.  As he did he was point blank, face to face, eyeball to eyeball with the bear.  Unsure about what his next move would be, he quickly reached behind him, without moving away from the door, grabbed Tia, and threw the dog in the face of the bear!  Seconds went by and all was heard from the outside was screeching, growling and howling.  And then complete silence.

John eventually went outside to take a look around.  Both the Grizzly and dog had disappeared and were nowhere to be seen.  Quickly scouring the area, and taking a peek underneath the trailer, he found Tia setting there, bug eyed and shaking terribly, but apparently Okay.  She had survived the whole ordeal, unscathed.  

At this point, camping didn’t seem to be much fun anymore.  So everything was packed up, loaded aboard the truck and camper and they headed for home.  Danny had slept through the whole thing.  He only remembers what he was told, about that night.

Lorraine said they never actually gave up on camping after that.  But each time she started packing things together for a camping trip, the dog would run and hide.  Could you blame her?  I'm sure she would be thinking... "you ain't takin' me, you just wanna use me for Grizzly bait!"