Bear Tracks

The last few weekends I've gone X-country skiing 'up top'. Up top means up on the Chilcotin Plateau, which has completely different weather than we do down here in the valley. Up there in the winter, its cold, snowy, and generally clear and sunny, when its not snowing, that is. Down here, its generally mild, rainy, and cloudy, quite dreary actually. So we skiers escape the valley, drive up above the valley weather, and get our weekly dose of sun.

Last week, skiing was a little bit more exciting than usual, because there were some very large bear tracks on the ski trail.






The question was, where was the bear? How old were the tracks? Were we in danger of encountering the bear somewhere along the trail?






We kept on skiing, and for probably a couple of kilometres, the bear tracks accompanied us, right along the trail. Then they veered off into the woods, and then a while later, they were back on the trail.







Fortunately, we never did see the bear. As we skied along, it started getting darker and darker, and up ahead there were some very ominous looking black clouds. Then, it started raining - so, with bad weather ahead, and a bear who knows where, we decided to play it safe, turn around and ski back, and call it a day.