Bear boards were not a deterrent.
by Russ Mehling, General Manager, Webber’s Lodges
Webber’s Lodges is well known for offering comfortable, yet remote, hunting adventures. Our caribou, moose and goose hunting camps are well off the beaten path and you’ll never see another hunter (outside of you own group) while sharing camp with us.
Or, I should say, another two legged hunter.
No matter what camp you are in, or what game you are after, you have to pay attention to the “other hunters” in the area at the time. I am referring mainly to bears: polar bears, grizzly bears and black bears.
During the hunting season, these bear encounters may add to the excitement of the hunt. In the case of polar and grizzly bears, cameras may be used to capture these special moments. Now, if a black bear crosses your path, and you have the appropriate license, an added hunting opportunity is created!
The downside of sharing the landscape with these burly beasts is the fact that for most of the year, they are left unsupervised. As you can imagine, our hunting camps emit many desirable aromas by the end of hunting season. The more successful the season, the better the camps smell to the bears.
Once the season ends, the camps are closed up for 11 months. Our managers and guides do their best to “bear proof” camp as part of the shutdown process. One thing that cannot be measured is a bear’s instinct to be ruled by its stomach, especially when he’s focussed on adding body weight to ensure survival through a long, cold winter. This trait, along with a bear’s intensity, strength and voracious attitude, can sometimes mean destructive visits to our outcamps.
During the fishing season at North Knife Lake Lodge we take the opportunity to visit our nearby moose hunting outcamps. The summer of 2016 proved to be record breaking in a less than desirable way. We had varying degrees of bear damage at three of our outcamp locations.
One of our goose camps was hit hard by a grizzly at least three times over the course of a week, each time doing a little more damage to an otherwise pristine location. After noticing the initial damage, a quick visit to repair the door and some decking was scheduled. Shortly after completion of the work, a fly-by showed the bear had been back and did not appreciate the renovations. He re-asserted his opinion of how the lodge should look and moved on.
The goose camp had a visitor.
A second visit for repairs was followed by yet another visit by said bear. Again, some damage was done, some groceries were eaten and a content grizzly walked off with a full belly and a sense of accomplishment. On our third visit into camp, we were smart and left a guard on standby to thwart any attempt by visitors wishing to redecorate. Of course, the bear was smarter than we were and refused to show up while the welcoming committee was there.
At one of the moose camps there was another visitor, this time of the black bear variety. Black bears tend to be more polite when they visit one of our camps. A bit of clean up and quick carpentry had that camp as good as new in no time and, so far, the bear has respected our request to leave things as they are at that location.
The third site hit was one of our caribou camps. The suspect? Another grizzly bear. We knew it would be bad when we arrived and saw the bear boards pulled off the door and picture window. Walking up to the cabin, we could see the door frame damage and knew the bear must have made himself at home for a while.
“Beary” messy.
Very little structural damage, but oh, what a mess!
He started in the kitchen (where else would a hungry bear start?), clearing the shelves of all dishes and breaking most of them in the process. He then headed for the pantry, where he struck gold. After tossing the freezer around and realizing it was empty, he proceeded to clear every shelf of its bounty. In doing so, he created a trail of partially eaten containers of canned foods, snacks, cereals and powdered soups.
The good news is that the bear found what he wanted in the kitchen and left all bedrooms and bathrooms unscathed.
It’s all part of the adventure and a few days of elbow grease should be enough to get all three camps cleaned up for the start of our fall hunting season.
Ahh… life in the wilderness of northern Manitoba!
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