Carol told me it wasn't moose season, but there was a good chance we'd see a bear - and the headlines of the local paper certainly made it seem likely.
The Whistler area supports as many as 70 black bears - and they offer a bear viewing tour, but at 189 bucks a head, that was a bit out of my price range. Carol found out from some of our resort neighbors that there were bears on Blackcomb Mountain that could be seen by taking the lift, but at 40some dollars per person for the day, that seemed a bit expensive as well - not to mention I'm not particularly keen on being suspended on a cable high in the air.
So we decided to try finding some wildlife on our own (note - this is wildlife as in one word - we found plenty of the two word version at the various open air bars of Whistler Village.)
First stop was the Olympic Village - the venue for ski jumping, cross country skiing, and the strange shoot/ski event known as the biathalon.
Turning off the main road, we hadn't driven more than a few miles when I had to hit the brakes to avoid this.....
Thank you Carol, for getting that shot......Ironically I'd only ever seen one bear in the wild before - and it was crossing the road at Skyline Drive in Virginia. But this proves that contrary to what some people kept saying (and you know who you are) I didn't even come close to hitting a bear.
After that bit of excitement we headed on down the road further. Eagle eyes Carol spotted something off a parking lot - so we pulled over and found this guy having lunch.
He was even kind enough to pose for me when I asked.
OK - maybe I was a bit closer than prudent - but I kept the car (which contained Carol, lol) between me and the bear at all times.
We made it to the Olympic Park and the first thing I saw was the ski jumps which are HUGE - much bigger than I imagined. Check this out - Carol and her family are in the foreground for scale.
We also saw this sign - I guess better late than never :)
Properly cautioned (and after removing the chicken bones and other food trash from the car because I didn't want to come back and find company in the front seat, we headed up the trail to see the rest of the park.
I can now state unequivocally that bears can and do climb trees.
So, mission accomplished - bears everywhere.......thanks to Kaikoa's good eye, we even found a bear on the way back to town.
This one made me a bit nervous as he didn't seem particularly thrilled to be photographed and since the Depner clan insisted on staying by the car I didn't have anyone available to throw at him in the event of a charge.
But he eventually ambled off - and we headed to the slide center - where the bobsled, skeleton, and luge events were held.
Although the visitor center was closed, there were a couple of employees around who offered to go in and get us a map. They also said that we weren't likely to see any bears because it was too hot for them.
I beg to differ - we headed to the bobsled track and were met by Bob.
He seemed more intent on eating grass than us, so we decided to go ahead and walk around a bit - again, I was surprised at how big the track was and how steep the banking.
Thus ended our bear sightings, but I think we did pretty well for do it yourselfers :).
Wow, that was a lot of bears! awesomeness!
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