A Couple of Uninvited Guests | Off-Grid Living in Bear Country | British Columbia, Canada

[Music] right [Music] [Music] good [Music] good morning um today is going to be a bit of a lame video I'm afraid to say um I'm keep my eye behind me because right here I think there's a bear around just to let you know because Peach is going nuts this morning I just had her out but I put her back inside um but if he shows up he'll show up either up on this hill or up here so um so it's been a a week of bears this week um the owner was here for one day and wow he he bucked up a ton of wood so he bucked it all up I hauled it all up to the wood splitter and yeah now I've got a ton of wood to do so and I didn't get much done this week um he's going to be mad at me he won't be mad at me he's actually really nice but um I didn't do a lot outside this week because um what was it Wednesday we were in Peach and I were inside the cabin and she's just going a little bit nuts at the windows and she usually does that when a squirrel kind of pops up um um onto the deck so we have the squirrel and the squirrel I give him nuts and whatever once in a while and what he does is he'll come up to the door and he'll just make a bit of noise and peach always smells him under the door and when she goes to the door and sniffs and sniffs I know that the squirrel is there and wants some want some walnuts or something so I'll go out and give him some food um but this time I looked at the window and the there was no squirrel there but she was just going from window to window whining like not barking but just a whne and just really anxious um so thought oh she probably has to go to the bathroom whatever so I got her leash on we went outside and she instantly started pulling me towards the dock like just and she doesn't pull on leash but she was just pulling me as hard as she could so I thought okay so it's our black bear hadn't shown up yet which is really weird like I was getting worried about him cuz he always shows up on the same day and he he didn't show up and he was like what was it at that point like 8 days late 9 days late something like that so she was pulling me and I thought oh okay the black bear is here oh okay so I let her pull me cuz I'm like I'm not going to go up to a black bear but you know I just started saying hey bear hey bear we're here out loud and just let him know that we were around as well so we get to the dock and as always if I go up the dock I'm always looking right and then left just to look for Bears on the shoreline and I think that day it was around 11:00 a.m. and the tide was low and when the tide is low that's when the Bears are more likely to be out on the shore line because all the crabs and clams and goodies um are available for the eating so tide was low so I thought be extra careful so we just we barely took like two steps I keep looking over there we barely took like two steps uh onto the dock and I looked right and I looked and there was this massive Mound and I thought okay that's no Rock because I I know all the rocks on the beach and I didn't recognize that one so I in my mind I instantly thought black bear so I grabbed her I Peach was still focused on getting down the dock like she was sniffing like she just she didn't quite know what she smelled or what she was looking for so I grabbed her collar and her head was still pointing down the dock and I'm seeing this in my mind slow motion uh right now I just remember every second of it so I grabbed her collar to hold her because I thought okay if she sees the bear she's just going to take off after him and yeah I just I wasn't sure cuz she I don't know that she's ever like seen a bear like prolonged view of a bear so I grabbed her color and I looked myself and something clicked in my brain like that's not a black bear and I looked and it was brown like that I've seen so many black bears to know a black bear when I see a black bear and that bear was brown and instantly I was scared I my heart started racing I adrenaline just skyrocketed so I I looked at him watched him and I just like crap so I I had the leash with me this is why my hands up like this this is a leash so I clicked the leash on her and I thought we need to get out of here before she sees him and causes a scene because Grizzlies generally won't attack humans or dogs they just avoid them cuz they find them just basically annoying but Grizzlies are unpredictable you like I wasn't chancing anything I clipped it and I pulled her and so her head turned as I pulled her and she looked at the beach and she saw him and she literally went and she just made this weird like low kind of whiny growl it was just the weirdest sound and I and we were upwind from the grizzly so he didn't had he hadn't smelled us yet so I just pulled her and I she was yanking me trying to get back so she could go either see him or chase him I don't know what she wanted to do but I didn't care I literally ran and dragged this dog all the way back to the cabin so I get back into the cabin I put her in there I leave her leash and her um I leave everything on her and I quickly grab my phone charger so I got my phone charger put in my pocket um and then I just kind of paused and I thought was that a chrisly like am I just imagining things or so I I thought okay I got to go back and check so I wanted to get my camera but it was like the the camera was on the table and it didn't have the the L bracket on the bottom and I didn't know where the piece was to remove it off my other camera and I just so I ended up just grabbing my little mini binoculars that I have so I put those in my pocket I left her in the C and I had to go fast because if he was there if it was a Grizzly he was there I wanted him I wanted to get back so that he was in the same place I didn't want him leaving or moving closer so I ended up running down the the bank in front of the cabin onto the beach and I ran up the beach to the to the dock and I was so quiet I literally crawled up on to the dock and he was still there this bear was the biggest Beast I'd ever seen in person like without like not at a zoo or something he was so big and he was round like he was like puffy and round and he was just look so healthy and his hair wasn't like a black bear it was spiky so was kind of sticking up a bit whereas a black bear is is more like it just sits against his body so I took my binoculars and looked and the the bear was had his head down so he was facing me but I remember I'm up wi so he doesn't he hasn't sensed me or smelled me he doesn't know I'm there yet so he had his head down and head down and he turned like he was eating something on the beach and he turned so that his butt was facing me but he still didn't see me cuz he had his head down the whole time focusing on what he was eating but as he turned I saw a very distinct lump on the back of his neck so black bears have like a really slopey neck so there's no um bump but black Grizzlies have they've got they're usually really fat and they've got a a a bump on the back of their neck and he had that bump and his head was this massive honking square head so I knew in that moment it was a Grizzly that's the first Grizzly I've ever seen in person and I'm not going to lie I was so scared I was I was shaking I thought I was going to throw up so I instantly kind of walked down halfway and when I got halfway back back to the cabin I started running and then I ran up the side of the bank and I fell and I got stones in my hands and then I was laughing as I fell because I was thinking this is what happens in the movies people are running and they fall and that's how they get caught so but anyway the bear still didn't even know I was there so I got up and I got back to the cabin and I just opened the door grabbed her and then we ran to the main house because I had garbage in my cabin and I just cooked um it was 11: so yeah I just cooked breakfast and I had chicken out that was thawing and I just I'm out of here so I grabbed her we ran up to the main house and I literally stood in the main house for 2 hours just staring out the window cuz I figured he was coming this way and he was going to come up the main uh road to the house but yeah he never never showed up and I never never saw him again so a couple hours later I just thought I can't stay in here like all day all night so I ended up um just going back to the cabin so uh peach and I we didn't go up the main uh down the main road from the house to the cabin just went around uh the side path down by the beach I don't know why some some reason I feel kind of safer going down by the beach I don't know why it's probably not safer but I don't know cuz there's not really any buildings down there to jump into anyways so I didn't see the grizzly again but I was freaked so I get a lot of people asking me do you ever get scared I was scared I was very very scared so the next day I was just freaking out like I did not want to go outside I took Peach out like two or three times but I didn't go outside at all I was just so scared um but then yesterday I decided it was time to put my big girl pants on and just get outside cuz there was a lot of wood to be split so Peach and I went down to um so I grabbed everything I grabbed my camera and everything went down to the wood s splitter I was just tying her up cuz she wasn't going to let her run around with the grizzly around so I just tied her up and all of a sudden her she just went I was like what so and her she just like when she sees something she kind of kind of like her whole body points towards it like her ears go there like her whole body points towards it so I turn around look up and there's this massive black bear just walking down the main road like you know he's on a Sunday stroll so I was like oh great so I ended up just leaving my camera there and I grabbed her and she she didn't bark or anything she kind of whined a bit um but I don't think she my battery just died I had to change it sorry about that um so peach peach didn't bark at all um I don't think she quite understands what she's seeing yet I don't think she she's just trying to figure out exactly what it is um but she did um wine she gave out this kind of bizarre wine so yeah so I grabbed her and we just calmly walked back the bear looked at us like he literally turned his head and just looked back and just continued towards the main house uh just completely ignored us so we just went back to the cabin um I went out and I did get some footage it's really shaky because I left my other camera by the wood s splitter and I just had my big camera without the tripod so yeah it has no stabilization so I ended up taking some footage of him the bear ended up staying around for about 2 hours it went it ended up going behind the main house and just lying in the grass and it hung out there and I I thought oh I just hoped it wasn't going to sleep there overnight but not if it did it was no big deal I just I just my camera was still at the wood splitter and I just wanted to go get my camera about 2 and 1/ half 3 hours later it did end up going I don't know when it went I just kept going outside to check if it was still there um so probably around 6:00 p.m. or so uh peach and I went out and grabbed the camera but I didn't didn't see him around so anyways so it's been a a very busy week I didn't end up getting any footage this week at all which is pretty lame yeah so when I saw the grizzly I alerted the the neighboring Island and just let everyone know let the owner know they were really nice they're like what can we do like is there anything we can do for you they were so nice cuz it's it's a scary thing seeing a Grizzly I never will want to see chrisly again cuz it's so scary yeah chrisly so generally they'll just leave you alone like they don't care to involve themselves in with humans and dogs and apparently because we've been encroaching on their territory so much that they've they started becoming more nocturnal than anything so yeah they just they really want to avoid us but that being said Grizzlies are very unpredictable so you don't want to rely on what they normally do it's less reliable than it is with a black bear for sure you just you see a Grizzly just if he doesn't see you just get out of there for sure but but if he does see you don't run that's the worst thing you can do with a Grizzly is run so I'm just so glad he didn't see us so that's my lame video for today thanks for watching and I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Amanda Off-Grid

Views: 5,370

Keywords: #OffGrid #Sailing #BritishColumbia

Id: bUUybeGxFww

Length: 17min 57sec (1077 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 14 2024