A few years back I was painting in my favourite field in Kananaskis across from Mount Kidd. I would take my dog with me as I knew how oblivious I was to my surroundings while painting, with the thought that he could maybe alert me. It was spring, and it was quiet, real quiet, as the hordes of visitors to the park had not arrived yet. I heard what sounded like the snap of a stick from across the road, so decided that I would go and have a look. Not wanting to venture into the brush and woods too far, I encouraged my dog Jasper, a big loveable Berna-Doodle, to go and have a look.Jasper usually jumps at the opportunity to go for a wild run in a woods, but not this time, he wasn’t having anything of it, and remained steadfastly by my side. We continued to listen and I certainly did not hear anything, maybe Jasper knew what was there all along, but he never told me. So we went back to the other side of the road and I resumed my painting, and Jasper sat in the shade of a tree. In Jasper’s defence, at this time he was off-leash, as this was before the Park Warden threatened a large file if I did not put my dog on a leash, she being more concerned about the well being of bears, not myself or my dog, so he had had an opportunity to run around a lot so maybe he was just tired and did not want to investigate on the other side of the road. So, I continued to paint, this time with my music playing loudly through my phone, although this of course is really not that loud. I thought maybe if there was something over there, at least they would know that there was something over here. I finished my painting, in probably another half hour or so, although I am a bad judge of time while painting, and we packed up to leave. While walking to my car, another car slowed down to a crawl, and looked as if they were going to stop and say something. As I approached my car, they drove away. We got in the car, turned around and drove back towards home. 500 meters down the road we saw these two creatures eating the grass along the roadside. The first bear looked kinda nice, contentedly munching away, head down along the roadside.
The second bear was broader, jerkier, rumbling along. When he looked up at me, fear ran through me. I immediately thought that it would be wise not to panic if seeing this guy in the wild, but boy it would be hard, in the frazzled state that I was in after a full day of painting. Beautiful animals, but best to keep a healthy distance, and if you cross paths, bow down, back away and let him know who the boss is … he is.