We spent our last day in Bella Coola on various hikes around the Bella Coola area on the hunt for Grizzly Bears. We had arranged for a local guide - Doug Baker - to come and pick us up and take us to the areas where there would likely be bear activity.

We searched over a very wide area, we saw loads of signs of grizzly bears and cubs - from fresh poop full of berries, to bear rubbings on trees with fur attched, to recent scratch marks on trees, to paw prints.

At one point we circled back on ourselves and discovered signs of bear activity that weren’t there the first time we had walked past that spot, so it was pretty obvious that particular bear was tracking us rather than the other way around! We were very close to bears all day, but we never actually saw one - in a way I’m glad they were so elusive as if a bear had smelled and heard us coming and not run off or hidden, then it would have been a bear that is not scared of silly humans and their 2 canisters of bear spray, so it might not have been a very nice encounter anyway. There had been a bear attack early in the Spring just a few Kilometres from Suntree Cottages which had shaken the community a bit.

Next time  (because there will be a next time!) I would make full use of Doug’s 4×4 and explore some of the lovely lakes, waterfalls and volcanoes in the area and forget about bear spotting. But we had a nice day anyway, especially in the morning when we spent a good deal of time walking around the huge old-growth cedar trees in Snootli Creek Regional Park.

We also enjoyed walking alongside the various rivers en-route to the edge of Tweedsmuir National Park.

Doug was a very knowledgable, interesting and friendly guy and it was good to hear about all of his experiences of living in the valley. If you ever fly into Bella Coola in the winter and the plane can’t land at Hagensborg airport  due to the weather, then you will land at Anahim Lake at the top of The Hill and in all likelihood it will be Doug who comes to pick you up in a big school bus and drives you down to Hagensborg and Bella Coola. If you’re lucky (or unlucky, depending on your view of things) he’ll share some of his poetry with you.