Category: Bear

Ashuanipi River, Labrador, Bear, Fishing, Labrador, Northern Lights Lodge

Labrador 4

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Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Every day starts with a great breakfast. Yves and Patti are a delight to be around. By now we had heard bits and pieces of the story about them building this lodge 90 miles from Labrador City. Yves came out in winter, pulling equipment, including a sawmill, and built the lodge in 39 days! He cut the trees, them cut into lumber and built it. Caribou were here in abundance. Huge black bears, like the huge Brook trout, grew here.

“Between the 1950s and the 1990s, the George River herd grew and grew — from about 15,000 animals to more than 800,000. When the ban took effect in 2013, the herd was estimated at 70,000 animals. Population estimates earlier this year put the herd at under 10,000 animals.” (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/herd-inuit-caribou-documentary-1.6549493).

It is especially devastating to the Inuit people whose lives are intertwined with the Caribou. Some disease seems to have devastated the herd. The effect is not unlike the loss of the plains buffalo in the U.S.

As I walked down to the boat, I passed Yves in his workshop/tool house. I commented that I had never seen such an organized workshop. He smiled and said it has been a process. He has been robbed several times. He reinforced the front door with steel, but they hooked the back door to an ATV and pulled it off. They came in masks and cut the security camera wires. They shot the satellite dish, broke into the lodge and took cushions to put the motors on. Out here in the wilds, this is a difficult thing to prevent. They followed the tracks back toward town, but when they got close to the town, tracks were going everywhere, so they lost the trail.

Then there are the bears. This morning I noticed two white things in cellophane next to our front door. I thought they were peppermints. Perhaps someone thought we had bad breath. Then when I went over to the lodge, they were in all the windows. Yves said they were moth balls to keep the bears away. Last week Patti had put an apple pie in the window to cool. A bear came and ate it, then tried to get in the window, so Yves had to shoot it. Now she cooks with the back windows closed, so it gets a bit hot.

If you fish enough, you are going to get tangles!

Due to a fire ban, this was the first day we had a shore lunch. It is in a beautiful spot with great views. Pike, cod, potatoes, toast and onions.

Bear, Cades Cove Campground, Cades Cove Loop, GSMNP, Coyote, Deer, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Little River Trail, GSMNP, Tennessee

Hike Little River Trail, Cucumber Gap

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We went on the Loop Drive in the morning, now the fifth time we’ve done it. We saw lots of turkeys early, but the highlight was finding a “bear jam” with a ranger present. There was a mother and three babies in a wild black cherry tree….all on one branch!

  • Two tags in her ears, the green saying she is a safe bear, the red identifying her.
  • Wild Black cherry tree

We relaxed and hung out, waiting for Karen to come at 12:30. She brought us lunch, and the kids told stories of the trip. They were so excited to see her! After a little nap, we drove to hike the Little River Trail loop through Cucumber Gap. The Little River is a beautiful stream with big pools. We saw two fishermen coming down the trail. I asked how they did. They had only caught one, probably because they were fishing behind someone else.

Little River
Little River

I was a little unsure after turning onto Cucumber Gap as it looked like it was going the wrong way. After awhile two ladies came down the trail. After some conversation, we determined we were going the right way. Martha stayed and talked with them as we walked on. One’s husband had been at the JAG School at UVA, and they had lived on Carter’s Mountain.

Josh was telling stories and talking about school that starts next week all the way down the mountain. I was behind them and Melissa and Martha 100 yards back. Suddenly, there was a large cracking noise. Looking up, we saw a tree fall to the ground with a big crash on our right. Scared us to death, but fortunately we were not in its way.

We got back a bit late, and the kids wanted to take Karen on the loop drive. Martha said she would stay and get dinner ready – campfire stew. What a show we had. Our best spotter is Melissa, especially standing out the sunroof. There were turkeys near the barn; then a coyote trotting through a field. Then Melissa spotted two bears in a big tree to our right. I handed the camera with a big, heavy lens to Josh in the back seat, first setting it to automatic and adjusting the iso. He did a fabulous job and loved every minute. Thinking that was all we would see, and talking about how lucky we were, we rounded a corner and were stopped by a husband and wife in the street. A mother bear and three babies were in the woods. I parked the truck and everyone got out. They appeared right in front of us in the field. Josh was shooting while a man was talking to the mother bear, guiding her to a hole in a wire fence. As she made it to the opening, I ordered everyone back in the truck. Josh stood on the console and out the skylight, still shooting pictures. All four bears walked right in front of the truck, up the side of it and crossed the road into the forest. We were breathless. Those little babies were soooo cute! What a night we had. Back at camp, we told Martha all the stories.

  • by Josh Crick
  • Two bears in a cherry tree by Josh Crick
  • Two bears in tree by Josh Crick
  • by Josh Crick
  • by Josh Crick
  • by Josh Crick
  • by Josh Crick
  • by Josh Crick
  • by Josh Crick
  • Smoke in the Smokies
  • by Josh Crick
  • Shooting a videeo out the sunroof.

Melissa Quotes:

Getting up from the hammock, I asked where she was going. “Gone to Nebraska’, she said.

Eating her second piece of bacon while the eggs were cooking, I said, “Don’t fill up on bacon.” She replied, “You can’t fill up on bacon. Everyone knows that. It’s a commonly known fact.”

She kept calling me “Crazy Dude” as I tried to kiss her on the forehead while she kicked, pushed and screamed.

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