I was at Jasper National Park in Canada camping by myself. I had become used to camping by myself, I had not wanted that but everyone I knew had outgrown that stage of their lives.
I had a semi girlfriend but she was not a teacher and could not take off on long camping trips. I assuaged her feelings by taking her to Las Vegas as soon as I got back home.
I had just set up in Jasper after spending the night in a hotel in Banff and decided to walk around and take in the sights. In truth most northern forests look pretty much the same and smell pretty much the same. What I liked was the quiet, the isolation, and the surprises.
My campground had at least eighty tent sites but there were fewer than ten of us there. Of course it was still June and most campers of the northern woods don't vacation until July. In fact I had to wait two days before a snow covered highway in Glacier National Park was cleared before I could move north. Several times that trip people looked at my Texas license plate, shook their head and smiled.
My tent site had a fast running shallow stream behind my tent. Across the highway there was a trail that led up a mountain. I took that trail and encountered a couple of guys from Germany coming down. They told me the trail ended about five kilometers further up at a ten meter wall of snow that blocked the trail.
I turned around and walked back down with them.
I saw a small trail going down to the side and said bye to them and took it. The trail became a ravine and made walking difficult so I took a small trail that led me to a small valley. I did admit it felt a little spooky there.
I sat to rest and saw it was already late afternoon and would be dark soon. I took the small trail back but never found the ravine.
I heard a truck somewhere above me so I hiked up. I came out to a highway about a kilometer down from the campsite so I followed the road back. I fixed myself a can of corn beef hash, drank a beer, and watched the stars appear.
I heard something thrashing through the stream behind me and saw a moose heading away from the highway. I wondered if the bridge over the stream was high enough for him to go under or if he had to cross the road. Even though I already had many pictures of moose it was my first Jasper moose so I took a picture.
It had been a long day for me so I went to bed. It was probably before nine in the evening.
I was up before the sun had completely cleared the horizon. No one came into the restroom while I was there and was happy to see my water was already boiling when I got back to my tent. I did remind myself that I was at altitude and the water was not that hot but it was hot enough for my instant coffee and I ate peanut butter cookies with it.
I was just starting on my second cup of coffee when a bear just walked through my tent site.
It was a small black bear, perhaps two winters old but I looked around for its mother anyway just in case. The bear settled in by the stream and began munching on the new grasses. Again it was not the first black bear to walk through my campsite but I took a picture anyway.
Something on the far side of the stream suddenly got the youngsters attention and it began to sniff the air. With resolute steps it suddenly walked through my site and away from the stream.
"What would scare a bear? A bigger bear?" I asked myself.
I looked towards where it had been looking and saw nothing but thick woods. I took a picture anyway then went back to my second cup of coffee.
After a while I picked up a faint whiff of skunk and decided the bear may have had an unfortunate encounter with one earlier in his life.
So far all of the interesting stuff had happened by the stream. I considered turning my tent and the picnic table around so I could face it.
I was a good hiker that never lost the trail I had taken, until yesterday. That bothered me so I decided to repeat it and see were I went wrong.
That time I took some red tacks before I began. I walked up the trail until I saw the small one I had taken the day before, except this one never turned into a ravine and ran more or less parallel to the stream. I had placed tacks by the head of the small trail and had continued to do so about every two hundred meters or so.
The trail seemed to go down which feIt felt strange since across the road from the park there was a mountain. The stream was still headed behind me and the campground.
About a thousand meters later I needed to make a choice so a put tack on a tree and took the trail that seemed to be mostly level. A thousand meters later I decided it was a boring trail and decided to turn back but decided to eat my snack and drink some water first.
I was enjoying some marshmallows when I smelled a skunk. But no, it wasn't a skunk. It was a different aroma, more like skunk cabbage but less irritating. I looked around and saw nothing. I took pictures of the area the smell was coming from, I figured if there was anything there I would find it when I loaded the pictures to my computer after I got home
On a whim before I began my trek back I left a small stack of marshmallows on a rock. I hoped it would be of interest to Stinky.
I was about halfway back to my tent when I began to feel I was being followed.
The last time I had that feeling I was in fact being followed, by a grizzly bear. That encounter became a happy memory for me.
The bear was an old female and she was simply walking the trail I happened to be on. We were in Glacier National park and she was apparently very much at ease with humans.
Like now I was headed out of the trail.
When I turned to see what was behind me she stopped. I said good afternoon, took a picture, then walked on at my previous pace. I talked to her for about two hundred meters before we came out to the trailhead. Just in case I went to the far side of my car and I took pictures as she looked both ways before crossing the road.
However, this time I did not see anything moving behind me but took another picture on general purpose. The tacks led me back to my campsite well enough and I was soon relaxing on my folding chair by the camp table.
After a supper of canned chili and oyster crackers I decided to see if anything was in any of the pictures. I zoomed in on the images and still saw nothing.