the pool. It crossed back and forth using
the fallen tree bridges before climbing the
bank and vanishing silently into the forest.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
On both trips, we stopped in the Fiordland
Conservancy Area to photograph grizzly
bears. Both times I was rewarded with
amazing shots of numbers of grizzlies,
including spotting a female grizzly with
two cubs fishing for salmon. In 2017, I was
standing barely 100 feet away as I watched
a female grizzly in the stream catch a chum
salmon and feed it to her cubs. After a few
hours of fishing and feasting and always
aware of the presence of nearby bears, she
led her cubs up into the high grass that
lined the edge of the stream. There she lay
on her back and began to nurse her cubs.
How many people get to watch and photo-
graph a grizzly bear doing this in the wild?
People often ask how close I was to the
bears. The best way I can answer is to say
that if that female grizzly had decided to
charge us, she would have been on us in
three to four seconds at most.
Several of the coastal First Nations
Peoples are beginning to reap the bene-
fits of ecotourism. On my two trips to the
GBRF, I met visitors from ten different
countries. Like me, all had come to experi-
ence the wonders of this place. Over time,
it will be interesting to see how this shift
to ecotourism will affect the GBRF. Hope-
fully, it will always remain an awe-inspir-
ing place to go and experience firsthand
all the magic that the region has to offer,
including Canada’s unique spirit bear. ■13