It's true that prior to the arrival of Europeans native North Americans lived in constant fear of been eaten by large animals. Their oral history is rich with tales of people being attacked and consumed in the middle of the night, middle of the day, while brushing their teeth, peeing, or simply sitting on a rock watching the rivers and waters flow by. Grizzlies were known to roll up a teepee just like a wrap and munch down. You thought the "Farside", was original. Larson stole all those images from ancient pictographs. The carnage was horrible. Remember there were a lot more bears back then as well as wolves, cougars, gators and beavers. Yes I mean beavers. I once heard an elder repeat the following story. Hoppy was the bravest of hunters. Once when his family had not eaten for many days he paddled down the coast to where he knew the deer came to wash up after eating some silly kayakers. Side surfing to shore Hoppy jumped out of his kayak and silently approached the deer trail. He stood very still so as not to scare the deer when they came down to the water. He stood so long that a beaver came up, mistook him for a tree, and gnawed Hoppy's right leg off. Hoppy never said a word but waited until a deer came. Snatching up his leg he hopped out and stuffed the severed limb down the deers throat choking it to death. Every trip to the middens meant a sudden death experience was just over the bank. In fact people lived in a perpetual state of war with these large carnivores. Thankfully Europeans turned up and now we're much more civilized. For example Steve Davis lives up in what we call the Highlands - the last wild area on the Saanich Peninsula. Last year one of his neighbours took little Fido out for a walk. A cougar jumped Fido and ate him. Later that day conservation officers showed up and tracked the cat down and killed it. We live in these wild areas because they are wild but don't seem to be able to live with the consequences of our choices. I believe that if you bring a snack to dinner don't be alarmed when it gets eaten. Last year I think there were two cougar attacks on people here in BC. Both people survived. Bear and cougar attacks do happen. But lets put them into perspective. For example we could compare wild animal attacks to attacks by the family dog. I'll bet my boat the dogs come out ahead by a very very wide margin. A few years ago I saw this home video of some family out hiking in one of the US National Parks. There's little Fluffy running down the trail. Then there's a hell of a lot of yipping and yapping. Two yips and a yap is enough ton make my blood boil. Suddenly here comes Fluffy right back to big Momma with the one really upset bear hot on it's tail. The last frames are of the camera falling and rolling around on the ground. The message was don't take your pets hiking or camping. What a hoot. Finally I leave you with this. If you're to scared to go down to the woods to day - there's always Disney World. I'm told the log ride is just like surfing. Have a good one. Gordin Warner *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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