Monday was a bit of a marker for me. It marked the end of my vacation. I took a couple of glorious weeks off. It was amazing and I feel like a real person now. Actually, the reality is, I could have used a month, but financially....I'm going to be a poor student. I've gone from being a poor student, to being in ministry and now back to a poor student. I love poverty.
Anyway - my vacation was quite eventful. My parents celebrated their 40th...so we all went to Jasper. And then my sister and I headed South to do some camping. I've never really taken much time in the Mountains...I usually pass by them on my way to BC. So, it was really cool to see how amazing our province really is. Seriously, the Rockies are absolutely amazing...and all this time I had no idea.
What was really great about that week was the fact that all of our tour guides were telling us this really great place to see bears in Waterton National Park...they gave really great directions...all of them describing our campgrounds. Awesome. We didn't see any bears there, but we saw them elsewhere....thankfully. I was talking to some other people and they stayed there for 3 days last year and saw 7-9 in their campsite.
We also lived through this wicked lightening storm. I'm not usually afraid in storms but I was freaked out. The lightening was so bright that it was practically day. Oh yeah... the keys happened to be locked in the car and we had no cell phone reception. We lived though.
The second week of my vacation, I went camping in the Banff area and then in Kananaskas. This was the more eventful portion of my vacation. My friend Lori convinced me to go White Water Kayaking. Which was awesome!!! I think I could become addicted to it. One minor detail was that our Guide fell off in Class IV rapids. Lori ended up getting pegged in the head with his oar as he went flying. Everyone was panicking and yelling "what are we going to do." I sat there thinking, "Yeah, what are we going to do?" Visualized us floating down the river without him and thought "We need to get him back!!!!" So I ran to the back of the boat...realized I had forgotten my paddle to extend to him...but he was a strong swimmer so he caught up. I also told him off in my mind as I thought he had the little pouch of rope that is supposed to be thrown to people overboard- I was sure the only bag was attached to his hip. Anyway - I grabbed him by the life jacket...fortunately Lori became oriented and joined me and we hauled him in. Needless to say, our adrenaline was a little high... it could have been so much worse.
Another interesting event happened on Saturday. There were 8 of us camping and we went to visit the upper portion of the lake that we were camping on. We had wanted to go earlier that evening but didn't end up going until much later because we doddled a bit and a couple of people were really badly sunburnt and needed some Alovera. Why is this important? Because as we sat on this lake - it became dark. We sat there talking and heard these people (a male and female) yelling. At first, we thought nothing of it. Then we thought they were yelling to be "bear safe." And then we listened...so realize that they were calling for help. It was too dark for us to do anything...and we were in bear country (Lori and I saw this huge Grizzly...he was massive). So we went and called 911. They sent a couple of CO's and when they arrived the thought the situation was sketch. Some of our group tried to communicate...it was hard with the echo...but we found out that they were not hurt, but cold and lost. They tried to follow our voices but ended up getting further away. They were able to show us with this teeny light for about 4 seconds at a time, where they were on the mountain. The CO's told us they would hike in as far as they could but that the hikers were off-trail...if they couldn't do it - they'd send a helicopter in the morning. 4:30 am in the morning I woke to hear the chopper and could still hear their cries on the mountain for the next 4 hours. It drove me nuts. Another girl and I sat on the lake and watched the helicoptors drop off baskets on this huge cliff (which is not where we had calculated they were...so we thought maybe they had lost hope of rescue and maybe started hiking again but ended up on this treacherous face). The story is that the search and rescue had to drop off supplies on a cliff and had to hike in to walk the hikers down. During the rescue a Grizzly and her cub also came along and so that is why we heard the gun shots. We had to leave before we were able to heard that they had made it down the mountain.
But it was amazing to realize that our being late had a huge purpose. If we had gone earlier...it still would have been light out and we wouldn't have been there to hear their cries for help. It's cool that God coordinates these things. He cares about the cold couple stranded on the mountain and ensures that momma bear doesn't rip their face off.
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I am jealous. I waited all summer to see a bear. I would have liked to have seen a grizzly (besides the one that I had seen in the Zoo) and I never did. I sincerely prayed for God to send me one. A Sow and 2 cubs had been living at camp and in the immediate area for about 5 months and so I figured that I should get to at least see them . I even went on a bear hunt. Nothing all summer. It was on the last day that I was to be at camp on September 3rd, 2007 that I woke up to the 3 bears sitting up in a tree right outside the dining hall at camp. It was the best good bye gift ever!
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