This is part 3 of 3 of a series where Dana explores her relationship with hunting.  Dana didn`t grow up around hunting – it`s something that came into her life with Joel when both were in their early 30s.  While she doesn`t hunt, she supports the activity and how it forms part of our local diet.  This is an introduction to share her perspective.

These trips are some of the best memories of my childhood. My parents continue their love for road trips and spent 50 days in their camper this summer retracing our steps out west.

After our adventures when I was small (6-10), I didn’t go camping much…I preferred heading downtown. As a teenager I went a couple of times, it mainly involved groups of friends, tents, lots of beer (or Durangos..barf) and usually was because of a big concert (Canada day at Molson Park, or Lollapalooza and the like). Living in Ontario a lot of people had cottages, whenever I got the chance I loved a good cottage weekend. Most of the ones I visited were like houses, only smaller with second hand furniture an old TV, a lake view and a campfire pit. As an adult I went camping tiny handful of times, I even went to celebrate my 30th birthday, with a big amazing group of people and portaged! (thanks Patty!)…I also went to New York City. Occasionally I would ‘escape’ Toronto for the odd hike, it was usually someone elses idea. My ‘natural habitat’ has always been Toronto’s neighbourhoods, You can plonk me in most North American cities and I’m  completely confident in my ability to find food and shelter (and great ones!), I can even maneuver the odd language barrier (I speak exactly 1 language) and take on European cities too. I can sniff out an art gallery, a vintage store no problem! My favourite way to observe ‘wildlife’ is to take public transit everywhere I visit and leave the tourist areas alone.  I’m not particularly well traveled (especially in my circles!), but I’m not affraid of traveling if I get the chance…and it’s to a city. I think people and cities are interesting, I like to observe and compare and see patterns that usually help in my navigation, and ability to find interesting things to do, and avoid danger.

….Then I met Joel. He took me to Kilarney for a freezing cold May 24 weekend. We spent some time camping in his 1.5 person tent (neither of us is .5 of a person!), until i convinced him (and his mom bought us the awesome 6 person tent with the foyer that we’ve sadly used only once (for a wonderful weekend in Prince Edward County at the sandbanks). 7 years ago he took me to the camp for the first time, and I have to admit it’s been a challenge for me…one that at points I’ve jumped into, and at other points have had to really push myself, and at another point just been flat out uneasy with.  Last year we bumped into a few bears (as I mentioned in my previous post) and i’ve been nervous about that this year.

Joel’s relationship with the woods, animals and nature in general while growing up was pretty different to mine as you probably can tell from his blog posts.  Hunting and the camp has been a big part of his whole life. At this stage of our lives we have in common a big respect for nature, values regarding it and thankfulness for what it offers us….but we took entirely different paths to get here and our experiences give us different perspectives. This time of year the impact of those different paths are felt a little sharper.

I get nervous when he goes hunting every year, I probably always will. Joel’s history has allowed him to trust, he sees patterns in nature and I can tell he finds the ‘predictability’ of it relaxing. With little exposure to humans, animals will generally act the same way they have for thousands of years. A lot of the animals I encountered in our travels as a child were very used to people, and our parents were right to caution us.  The humans are unpredictable and need figuring out.  Joel trusts himself, his knowledge and the systems they’ve spent 40 years building up there. He trusts that he can find his way, I have trouble working a compass and the GPS. If I could see that world through his eyes I know i’d find comfort, if I could feel what he feels and hear what he hears it would help me relax a bit more.

But to me, for now…it’s a big beautiful quiet place. Where each each ‘intersection’ is a puzzle and I can’t see the landmarks, where the animals are amazing, but might decide to eat me, or my dog, or my favourite person. My fears are a bit irrational I’ll admit (more immediate, unpredictable danger in cities, of that i’m positive), but I’ll be happy to see the odd text messages and updates throughout the week to reassure me.

I love what he’s doing and how excited he is to be out there. Along with being able to spend a lot of time with his dad, it’s truly a ‘break’ for him. Challenging and tiring yes, but less taxing than the daily schedule, the noise and the traffic. I’m excited to hear about the hunt and more excited to share with friends and family. But I’m content to ‘hold down the fort’ here in the city. The days are pretty long and quiet. I’m planning on catching up with some friends and some work (it’s been such a busy month), working on some art projects, and some blog projects….and enjoying some time to myself….in the warmth, and the noise and the crowd.

Happy Hunting.

*note: most of these memories are over 30 years old (so mom, excuse and ‘liberties’ i’ve taken with the stories…it’s how my little kid head remembers them).

*note 2: all these awesome shots were taken by my parents…in the ‘real 70’s…they’re not ‘hipstamatics’ they’re scans!

*note 3: i’m need to get some of those rad North Stars like my mom used to have!

This is part 2 of 3 of a series where Dana explores her relationship with hunting.  Dana didn`t grow up around hunting – it`s something that came into her life with Joel when both were in their early 30s.  While she doesn`t hunt, she supports the activity and how it forms part of our local diet.  Her childhood included some close encounters with nature, and she shares some of those today.

My childhood has left me with a couple of great bear stories.

The first one. My Grandmother (Rose) had bought a bushel of apples in the Okanagan valley and we locked them in one of the outer storage compartments of the RV. We woke up in the night when the camper was rocking back and forth. Peering out the ‘kitchen’ window with a flashlight revealed a black bear peeling the compartment door off and pulling out the apples. He ate them all sitting near our extinguished camp fire while we watched from inside. I remember being afraid and also amazed…bears eat apples? AND can sniff them INSIDE a camper??!  Wow.

The second. Was at lunch. We had pulled over to use a covered picnic enclosure (they looked like small log cabins with open windows all around and one door), filled with picnic tables. Mom had just set up our meticulously packed picnic (mom is beyond organized and always a fan of the Tupperware®). A car drove into the parking lot honking it’s horn and chasing a small black bear. Mom and dad loaded us back in the RV with my Grandmother (Myrtle this time, who was also known to feed grape lifesavers to the mountain goats that would stick their head in the car window). The bear wandered into the picnic enclosure (smelling mom’s awesome macaroni salad i’m sure) and tucked into our lunch, leaving teethmarks in some of the tupperware lids and eating a whole tub of margarine.

We also encountered a few that literally stopped traffic. They would be laying on the warm pavement of the road enjoying the heat and sun and paying no mind to the cars and trucks waiting for them to move. These guys were used to people and weren’t afraid. We had long infiltrated their property, their great grandparents had learned that we weren’t scary aliens or zombies and that most of us wouldn’t hurt them, that we were ‘more scared of them than they are of us’…and we had good things to eat and usually left it for them in big unsecured bins and garbage dumps that were far easier to access and more plentiful than forest foraging.

I was only about 8 years old when we took these trips…and was always protected and safe when we saw the bears so I enjoyed seeing them up close..it was kindof like a zoo in a way. I didn’t understand how our human presence had affected their natural way of living or their future.

Last summer when we were at the Camp we had 3 bear ‘encounters’ in one weekend. In the 40 years that Joel’s dad has been going up there he remembers spotting them a grand total of 4 times. Joel can posted a while ago more detail on this. I’ve been a bit nervous about them ever since, and trying to absorb and understand the difference between these guys and the ones I saw as a kid.  These ones were definitely scared of us (and bigger..haha), the ‘new instructions’ for me is to make myself big and make a lot of loud noise to scare them away. We didn’t have a chance to do that the first time, the bear was already scared when it saw us and took off. The third time we were in the truck on the main road so no real worries, but the 4th time a big one had wandered right into the ‘backyard’ of the camp and was kind of sitting there stunned at what he’d found (we were playing after dinner checkers inside). Joel shouted at him and like the other he ran away quick. Joel’s dad told me that these bears main priority is to not get hurt (even a little), so they will err on the side of caution and hightail it out of there. They have lots of options up there (for now) in the way of space and food so they’re not going to chance their own well-being just to ‘see’ what these weird aliens are all about and if they can snag some leftovers. But the kid in me is still pretty nervous, the one that was taught to be scared (rightly so!), I’m learning (albeit slowly) that fear isn’t necessary but RESPECT and UNDERSTANDING is essential. The more I learn about them, the less their is to fear, if I understand why they might be showing up and respect their space I think we can handle each other in most situations. It’s going to take a while (I’ve been scared of them for 30 years), and I can’t ‘scare’ Shaeffer into avoiding them like I would a kid , but I can start learning to trust his nature as well. I guess what I’m saying is for this city girl anyway, if you want to exercise your ability to Trust (the world, your loved ones, yourself)….you should get out of town a bit more. (more on that in my next post)

This is part 1 of 3 of a series where Dana explores her relationship with hunting.  Dana didn`t grow up around hunting – it`s something that came into her life with Joel when both were in their early 30s.  While she doesn`t hunt, she supports the activity and how it forms part of our local diet.  This is an introduction to share her perspective.

When I was growing up we used to take our vacations in beautiful places like Banff and Jasper in the Rocky Mountains, and the Okanogan Valley. We would rent an RV and travel for weeks staying in big campgrounds where I’d meet lots of other kids. We’d feed chipmunks, run around in the woods and have a chance to experience Canada’s nature and see animals not in a zoo. We’d sit around the camp fire, roast marshmallows and hot dogs on sticks and sing along with mom to “Going on a Bear Hunt”.

My younger brother and I were told not to stray too far. From a young age I knew that black bears run very fast and climb trees…if you see one you’re supposed to lay very still and ‘play dead’. Grizzly bears were far more sinister, they could be identified by a bump on their back, their brown color and the fact that they’re really big. They also run fast but don’t climb trees so your best bet to get away is to climb a tree and hope the big guy doesn’t try to knock it over with brute strength.

I played happily around our camp site, never tempted to stray too far lest I encounter a beast in the woods. It’s kind of like the old ‘don’t swim for an hour after eating’ tale. As a kid you didn’t dare ask again to go back in the water after lunch or you might get cramps and sink like a stone, you patiently waited while your parents got to enjoy their leisurely meal and wash up (and also have a nice break from watching attentively while you frolicked in the water). A few good safety instructions and some stories about kids getting eaten and you’d be somewhat assured that youngsters wouldn’t wander too far from the safety of the fire and the RV….i’d totally do it if I had kids (and the swimming thing too)!

We did encounter a lot of animals in our travels. Usually crossing the highway, just off the road up on the side of a mountain (my brother was excellent at spotting the wildlife).  These photos are all from my family`s photo albums:

As a child, that was my relationship with wildlife – more tomorrow of how that changed as I grew older.