Smitty, a Young Bear and a Tall Pine Tree

The Bridge River is in the dry country of Southern British Columbia. On a clear summer day, it can get hot, particularly on a south-facing slope. Our Department of Highways survey crew was working on relocating the road to well above the valley floor.

Ahead there was one very large Ponderosa Pine shading the trail

We had started the day at the Jones Creek Camp for some 80 construction workers. The food was good and there was lots of it. Steaks, chops, roasts and strawberry short cakes.

There was a station where everyone made their lunch for the next day. Metal “lunch pails” with the rounded top that held the thermos flask were popular. However, our young crew favoring calories over coffee, discarded the thermos and filled the space with the good stuff.

This included sandwiches, tins of smoked oysters, bananas, apples and oranges. Up and down slopes all day used a lot of calories.

It was getting towards noon. and we were on an old and level game trail. Being early in the summer, the open hillside was covered in lush grasses and colorful wildflowers. It was a couple of hundred feet of steep slope down to the flats, which turned out to be key to the story.

Ahead there was one very large Ponderosa Pine shading the trail. A good place for lunch. After finding a comfortable part of the mountain, I was wondering what to enjoy first when Smitty said there was a bear up the tree. I looked up but branches preventing me from seeing any bear, big or small, but others in the crew said there was. So, I got up from comfort and sure enough there was a yearling bear just above us.

I looked around and, fortunately, there was no mother bear in sight. The only weapons we had were 2.5-pound axes and belt knives.

But the bear kept backing up as Smitty continued to climb

Any idea of moving on was suspended as Smitty started to climb the tree. Feeling responsible, I told Smitty to “get down”. He kept climbing and the young bear who was getting agitated climbed further up the tree – backwards with his face down and his hind end up.

Others in the crew were also shouting to “come down”. By this time, Smitty and the bear were virtually face to face. with the bear snorting at the intruder. Considerable noise and excitement.

But the bear kept backing up as Smitty continued to climb.

It can never be known if Smitty had a plan, but if there was it was abruptly lost. The scene is still frozen in my mind as the higher they climbed the smaller the tree became. Then finally the bear was reaching up with a hind foot for a branch that was not there. It decided to come down--in a panic.

Also finding the panic irresistible, Smitty also started down. Well, what else could he do? But not fast enough as the bear passed him on the way down, tearing his shirt and jeans.

With this, the crew was helpless with laughter only to be driven to utter collapse. The bear hit the ground at the foot of the tree and losing balance rolled all the way down the steep slope. In a seemingly endless spin. When it hit the flats, it could hardly stand let alone run.

I can’t recall if I finished lunch with tinned oysters or the nice little brisling sardines.

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