Grizzly’s Picnic

While camping near Trail, BC in July of 2004, we left the campsite for one hour to buy some groceries in the nearest town. When we came back, we noticed that our picnic table had been moved. We didn’t think too much about it.

We unloaded the grocery bags from our van and set them on the picnic table.

“Where is our cooler?” asked my husband, with a confused look on his face.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “The cooler was right underneath the picnic table when we left.”

I bent down and took a look under the picnic table.

“There is no cooler,” I said.

“Well this is just great,” said my husband. “We have to get these groceries put away.”

We noticed some movement in our tent and slowly walked toward it. My husband slowly undid the zipper and was shocked at what he saw. He motioned for me to take a look.

“Oh my!” I exclaimed softly. “What is going on?”

To my amazement were two grizzly cubs in our tent, sitting on our sleeping bags with our cooler right in the middle of them both. They were having a picnic in our tent.

My husband heard a noise behind him and gasped at what he saw. He quickly motioned to me to get back into the van. Looking behind me as I ran, I saw the mother grizzly come to collect her cubs and to have a little picnic too. Once all the food was gone the three grizzly’s left our tent and Jim was finally able to put our groceries away.

“I think from now on that we’d better leave our cooler in the van with us,” said my husband.

“I think that is a good idea,” I said, laughing.