April Showers Bring May Bears

The last few days have been getting warmer; it is raining more, and the wind has been ferocious, at times gale force. Late last night there were flashing lights and the sounds of chain saws on the backroad near the gate to our place. This morning I found the remains of a huge popular tree that had fallen across the road and was cut into segments by the Billabong road crew, and moved to the side. It should make great firewood. Just another chapter in this unusual spring.

Yesterday I saw the first black bear of the season. It was an adult, probably a male since there were no cubs. He was ambling across the backroad just west of Cottonwood Canyon. Last year the first bear that we saw was in April. But this April was the coldest in 50 years and May has been setting low temperature records as well. Now Environment Canada is predicting a sudden and significant warming for this weekend… 21 to 30 degrees C (70 to 85 degrees F). Given that the winter snow pack has experienced little melting so far and stands at 130 % of normal in some areas, local flooding is expected as a result of the high temperatures over the next few days. CBC Radio just broadcast a seasonally late avalanche warning for the upcoming “long weekend.”

Last year when similar conditions led to the flooding of the backroad near its junction with route 37 (and the rest of the world) we were cut off from town for two weeks, which led to a crisis of sorts: Sammy our 16-year old resident cat at that time was out of kitty litter. Sammy was a lot like Felix Ungar in the Odd Couple. Sammy had been known to spend the better part of a quarter hour rearranging the litter box. And that's with fresh litter. The situation was becoming unacceptable and he let us know it. We had a few needs of our own, drinking water, food, and fuel. So I emailed Richard, our friend who lives in Kitwanga, and together we worked out a route that got around the flooding: I drove the Jeep to a railroad access point near the Kitwanga River bridge. He came from route 37 by truck, then down the railroad tracks in his quad, across the railroad bridge and met me at the access point. When I got there he handed me a bag of kitty litter. He understands a real emergency. Then I got on the quad and together we rode approximately 2.5 miles of railroad tracks back to 37, got his truck and went shopping in Kitwanga for the rest. Not much of a selection in the general store, the shelves were only partially stocked. Then we reversed the process and got me back to the Jeep. Richard is a real friend. (I shot this picture of Richard on the railroad bridge over the Kitwanga River on the way back from the store.) We were re-supplied, and Sammy had his fresh litter.

The road now has new culverts that will hopefully keep it passable if the Kitwanga River decides to flood again.

… Bob