A few summers ago my son and I wanted to try a new kayaking spot in a very remote area of Killarney Provincial Park…. It was a long winding River that wound it’s way out into the crystal clear waters of Georgian Bay on Lake Huron Canada. My wife and daughter dropped us off and decided that they would go hiking on the nearby trails and pick some blue berries. The area is known for their delicious blue berries.
It was around 3:00 in the afternoon, and We agreed that we would only be out on the water for about 2 hours and would meet back in the Parking lot no later than 5:00 pm to go for dinner … about an hour out we met up with some other kayakers who told us to keep a look out for black bears along the shore, especially along the hiking trails, since they had spotted a very large mother bear and several cubs eating blue berries only a few minutes earlier …
Bears ? Yikes, … the girls ! …. we quickly turned around and paddled as quickly as we could back to the boat launch. My heart beating very fast. Oh no, they have no idea.
They are going to get eaten by a hungry bear !
We pulled our boats up and headed down the trail, shouting and calling for them. There was no one on the trail. How far could they have gone ? We made lots of noise to scare any bears away… but now we noticed it was close to 5:00 pm and there was nobody around. Maybe they are back at the car. We raced back to the parking lot and it was empty. Not a soul around.
Where were they ? Did they drive to another trail ? It was now 5:30. Did they leave and come back at 5:00 and we were not there ? Luckily our kayaks were still on the shore, but no other humans , … for miles. Now I started to worry about us. We had no food, there were bears nearby, and we had no idea where the girls were.
Did they get hurt and have to go to the hospital ? What on earth happened to them ????
We were getting hungry now… and started imagining all kinds of scenarios. The closest town was a good 20-30 km away. I had a phone but my wife did not. It felt like hours had gone by …. But it was only minutes …. as the car pulled up and there they were … smiling, laughing and eating ice cream.
Yeah, they started down the trail and decided it was too hot and would rather go back to the Killarney Trading post to get some ice cream.
We were just happy they weren’t eaten by bears.
This is a painting from the Killarney Mountain Lodge where we stay every summer …
This is a video from our time on the water that day…. Yeah, all that drama but we still got the Video.
