Bears and Shitting Your Pants.

Found this little gem while organizing the disgustingly huge mass of photos and videos on my comp that, well, need to be organized.

Yesterday Chrissy took me to a spot, right along the Fraser River in Yale, that she, the 2 boys and man in her life( his family's land ) spend a large majority of their summer. 

We got there and I had to take 5 minutes to just suck it all in. Of course, you have to completely love mountains and rivers and sand ( bloody well beach sand!!...bleached over sparkly clean silt basically ) and this canyon to totally appreciate it. 

I walked around with my mouth open. Dotted throughout the forest of massive Fir trees and Salmonberry bushes were 3 tents, a cooking and eating station and plenty of smaller areas to sunbathe, read, play, whatever. All of which was right on the banks, literally, of the Fraser River. By the time school begins and they are back permanently in their house a month from now the creeks will swell from the last of the mountain melt, which floods the river and voila!/shame the ideal camping spot is under water till next summer.

Wow. That was the one word I said a good dozen times. It was just so beautiful. Then I reached for my camera, so I could take some photos and drool over them later.

I had left the batteries for the camera, in the photo charger. At home.

We thoroughly enjoyed the views, then went on to another spot where more fun could be had. It was one of the many run off creeks ( from the melting mountaintop snow on both sides of the river ) and that area as well was just stunning. The creek water was 100% see through and we could see a half dozen Salmon ( Pinks I think? ) resting before they fought the rest of the way up the mighty Fraser to their spawning grounds. Next spring I'd like to go there once a week to photograph the progression of the river, creek and banks alongside them. Try my hand at a time lapse mini film when done. :)

Next we headed over to a spot on the opposite side of town, (stopping for my freshly charged batteries...yay! ) that Chrissy and her friends used to play around when they were kids.

We followed a  pretty well worn vehicle path 

Which narrowed to this

and then we saw these fresh bear claw marks

Being as how it is berry, fish and camper garbage season...and there are bears walking around all the time, we decided to head back. But we carried big sticks and talked loudly!

These are 2 human and animal tunnels that run under Highway #1

This water is flowing down Silver Creek from the Cascade Mountain Range and right into the Fraser River.

Oh! Another little gem!

Enjoy today...go do one spontaneous act of kindness.