UP THERE, OUT THERE

Date: friday, June 15th 07 for all it matters

Written by: Duane then Dan

We are now officially in the land of the grizz. While still being in B.C. on a long road north, we have been in nothing but wilderness for over 1,000 K's.

The day started last night, when I cooked a good old fashioned feed of bangers and mash. Too full and burping like mad at about 8 O'clock I was reminded that cooking meat and sleeping in its smell really aint cool.

We drove off after doin da dishes and found and excellent side road with a lake and a huge fallen tree stopping us from getting to it. The rivers were high due to snow melt and it was now late and after 11 k's of walking today we had had enough. Living in a small space such as a van, has its moments, especially when the team is tired. It doesn't get dark till close to 11 and although with snow-sunburn I thought I'd be out like a light, ah ah..... eeeeeeeeeeer eeerrrrr (mozzy noise). F...... mosquitoes!!!

The van's shut tight, checked twice, they must be coming in through the vents. At 5am it was beyond a joke and the reality of Alaska's national bird was upon us. After having shifted from the penthouse bed to the downstairs luxury sweet with absolutely no success in putting our insomnia to rest, we decided it must be time to hit the road.

Well, that was easier said then done....

Vinnie would not start.

Flat battery.

Shit, that's handy when you're in the heart of Bear Country without a cellphone.

Before heading off by foot to the main road to wait for a car to hopefully give us a jumpstart, Muza needed to go no. 2's. He walked into the bush, clapping loudly to scare off any wildlife and as he did so, a truck went past on the highway and tooted his horn loudly... was he doing this to scare some big hairy bear off the road? Was that the same bear that Duane just chased off too?

Anyway, so we armed ourselves with the usuals: bearspray, bells, mozzy repellent etc. and took a shortcut through the bush to the highway. As soon as we had climbed the bank onto the road Muza spotted a black bear about 100 meters away on the other side of the road in the grass. Pino had been singing bullshit songs out loud while Muza was clapping, as well as the noise created by one very annoying bearbell on Pino's shoe, but still this bear had failed to hear us.

Then we both started calling out and clapping loudly, which made mr. bear look our way and bolt off. Holy shit, this was our first real bear experience!! Freaky shit.

This day luck turned out to be on our side again and in the next few minutes a ute appeared on the horizon and stopped at our frantic waving. The two guys stared at us with a rather cloudy-eyed gaze, but then agreed to give us a hand. With one attempt Vinnie started purring like a satisfied cat, so off we went, on our way to the next adventure in this wild land of extremes.