The CSSS in-house phrase, which found its origins from the 2006 CSSS Exec Retreat, returns. In this exceptional case, it happened to me and the Scout Group during our camp just this past weekend.

We had our camp in a Scout camp site in Maple Ridge over the weekend. It was somewhat cold for obvious reasons and we were tenting in the forest. Eventually, on Saturday as we were practicing foot drill in the field, it happened.

Brian: Dom! Bear!

Me: What? (pretty random thing for someone to say, especially during foot drill)

Brian points at the bear.

Me: Oh.

Since that point on, it threw us off balance schedule-wise. Any plans for outdoor activities that the Beavers and Cubs had were pretty much scrapped due to the unknown danger. Movement of our campsite areas became a priority as the bear had managed to steal some of the kids’ food (cookies, salad, Wonder Bread), which meant it would be coming back for more. We moved them into one of the Cub hulls (think of a cabin with a tarp for the roof, no windows, and no door) and constantly reminded them to not have food in their sleeping areas, lest they want to have a face-to-face meeting with a bear in the middle of the night.

Luckily, the kids did not have any more sightings with the bear anymore and the camp finished without incident, save the bus not starting up.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 12:13 pm and is filed under Scouting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.