July 21st - August 14th 2008

July 21st – From Joachim
We received 3 GPS locations for Suzy and one for Johnny this morning.  They are alive, moving and still separated from one another.  We will be heading out to check out these places now.

Back to Top

July 26th – From Joachim
There is no specific direction either one of the bears is moving in. By the looks of it right now, they both conquered their own mountain top of two neighboring mountains and run around on them. Occasionally even up and down on them.

Back to Top

July 27, 2008 - From Ruth
Our latest GPS points show Suzy is spending a lot of time on one of the mountains in the area so the goal is to climb to the top to do some vegetation and habitat surveys.  We will try to tackle the mountain using an avalanche chute (hopefully to avoid the endless fields of Devil’s Club which seem to inhabit every inch of the forest floor in the area!).   We found a clear, but fairly small, bear print in the mud on the hike to the mountain- looks like it might be a young grizzly, which is exciting!  

Back to Top

July 28, 2008 - from Ruth
We camped near a river last night and I got up at 5am to the sounds of beavers very nearby, and either coyotes or wolves howling very far off in the distance.  In the course of the day we see: two beavers in the river, some large birds of prey hunting along the river, a large, healthy black bear running into the forest, a mother grouse with 3 tiny babies walking along the road, a moose running across the road, and the 2 best things of all…the most gorgeous elk you’ve ever seen and a LYNX!! 

Back to Top

August 2nd - From Joachim
We received a few new GPS coordinates for the bears on Wednesday, and those showed that they are still on “their” mountains.  We are heading out to the field today. On Suzy’s mountain is a small area that she has visited on more than 3 different days. We will check that site out. We attempted to climb that mountain before but only made it about 1/3 of the way. We are bush whacking our way to the top, it is very slow going, last time we did 600 meters in 4 ½ hours.

Back to Top

August 3, 2008 – from Ruth
It’s time to try to conquer Suzy’s mountain again- we’re optimistic we might at least make it 2/3 of the way up to where the forest ends and the rocks begin (we’re hoping it’s an easier climb from there!).  The inclination is even steeper than before- so much so that we’re often climbing on all fours and trying to pull ourselves up through thick berry patches and slippery vegetation.  It’s interesting to see the kind of vegetation growing further up -  there’s less tree cover higher up which allows the berries and smaller vegetation to grow, which means that there actually is a variety of food sources at this elevation.  The berries aren’t quite as ripe as at the lower elevations, but will probably be ready to eat within a week or two - looks like they may not have to come down the mountain after all!

Back to Top 

August 5, 2008 – from Ruth
We get up at 6:30am and head off to climb Suzy’s mountain again, hoping that the early start will give us time to reach the peak and do a few vegetation surveys of Suzy’s area.  From our vantage point we can see that Suzy’s GPS locations are not nearly as close as we’d hoped- it would probably be the same distance again climbing into a valley, up to the ridge again, and then into the next valley where she seems to be spending her time. 

It’s perfect bear habitat- I feel proud of her for finding such a great spot!

Back to Top

August 6, 2008 – from Ruth
On the hike back to the car we see 3 or 4 different bear tracks along the way- mostly adult black bears, but also one that looks quite clearly like it may be a yearling grizzly bear.  Very exciting!  We head to the neighbouring valley on the other side of the mountains to try to get a VHF fix on both Suzy and Johnny as they both seem to be hanging out on the other sides of their mountains now.  We manage to get a signal from both of them which is good.

Back to Top

August 7, 2008 – from Ruth
Unfortunately luck was not with us this morning as the car shows no signs of starting up.  We’re able to let people know there’s a problem, and then we set about trying to solve it ourselves since we don’t know how long it could take to get help out to us.  On the bright side, we have plenty of food and a river nearby for water so there’s no worry.  Joachim heads out to the main road to sit and hope for a car to pass by, while I stay at the car and watch the smaller road.  And maybe luck was with us after all, as within 30 minutes Joachim arrives back at camp with help!  A guy who’s working in the area deactivating the roads pulls up, followed by his coworker on a huge flat-bed truck!  They both have the tools and the know-how to try a variety of things and manage to start it up manually.

Back to Top

August 14, 2008 – From Ruth and Joachim
We packed all of our stuff and decided to spend 10 whole days in the field.  We tried to tackle the mountain top Johnny lives on, drove up to it and looked at it from a distance to figure out the easiest way to the top. There was none. Our self made maps of the area showed us where we could reach the mountain within a 5 kilometer distance to the base of it. As it turned out, the road we had mapped was being deactivated as we drove there. It was completely blocked off, access not possible at all from the southern site of the mountain.  So we decided to wait and start off with Suzy’s locations. The GPS data showed that she had left the mountain top to come down towards the river and checkout what things look like around there. We did a site investigation and liked what we saw. Bear droppings, torn apart logs and a bigger berry variety than Save-On Foods could ever offer. She sure does know how to pick her places.