Photography, Trying New Things, Uncategorized, Vancouver Island

The Other Day, I Met A Bear

Retirement Reflections

For starters, let’s put the tune in your head. Then feel free to sing along!


The other day, I met a bear,
Up in the woods, A way up there.

He looked at me, I looked at him,
He sized up me, I sized up him.

He said to me, “why don’t you run?”
I see you don’t have any gun.

And so I ran away from there,
And right behind me was that bear!

Ahead of me, I saw a tree,
A great big tree, oh, golly gee.
The lowest branch was ten feet up,
I had to jump and trust my luck.

And so I jumped into the air,
But I missed that branch a way up there.


Now, don’t you fret, and don’t you frown,
I caught that branch on the way back down.

That’s all there is, there ain’t no more,
Until I meet that bear once more!
  • Humpbacks
  • Orcas
  • Seals
  • Sealions
We also saw a huge array of wildlife. Here are just a few!

Thank you to our guides Holly, Flavian, JJ, Ian and the Homalco First Nations People. If you get the chance to experience any other their tours (especially The Great Bears of Bute), I highly recommend it. A+++!

Special thanks to Richard, Deb and Carol for another awesome adventure! I already can’t wait until the next one!

** Lyrics from Traditional Children’s song from: Musixmatch.

Published by Retirement Reflections

Prior to retirement, I lived and worked in Beijing China for fourteen years (Middle School Principal/Deputy Director at The Western Academy of Beijing). Leaving international life behind, my husband and I retired to Vancouver Island in June 2015. To document both this transition and our new adventures, ‘Retirement Reflections’ was born. I hope that you enjoy reading these reflections, and will be willing to share your own.

76 thoughts on “The Other Day, I Met A Bear”

  1. What a great experience Donna! Mike and I wanted to see a bear when we visited Canada a couple of years ago but alas they were hibernating. We did however see a couple at Grouse Mountain but they were in captivity which isn’t the same. Great photos and you make me want to come visit again. xx

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  2. Did you, ya know, get scared at all? I’m intrigued but also unsure how much id enjoy getting that close to one (not like they’re climbing our fruit trees every year, but at least I’ve never been around to see them!)

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    1. Hi, Anne – This is the closest I’ve ever been to any bear…let alone bearS! Oh, except for that time in Whistler when I stumbled upon a baby bear. Yup, I backed out of their slowly but very, very steadily! Yesterdays experience was much safer, with many more photo ops! 😀

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  6. Wow! A bear in real life – you couldn’t ask for more than that. Great photos and I love the rhyme you chose to go with them – a lovely creative addition to your story telling x

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    1. Thanks, Jill – I was a tad nervous before we left. But I felt surprisingly comfortable right from the first bear meeting (2nd photo after the Youtube link). Although he was sorta heading our way, he truly showed no interest in us.

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    1. Thanks so much, Suzanne – All photos above were taken with my Samsung phone (with the exception of a few final photos that we took on Richard’s Samsung phone….mine ran out of batteries). So we truly were up close and personal. I had planned to use a phone tripod but never took it out of my bag … I was afraid of missing that ‘one great shot’! 😀

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  11. Lions, and tigers, and bears… oh my! (OK, maybe not the lions and tigers.) I’m so happy that you were able to enjoy this adventure… and come home safe and sound to blog about it. I’ve see a few bears over the years but I don’t think any of them were grizzlies. Thanks for sharing!

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  13. Yay! So happy for you Donna. I’m pretty sure something like this was on your bucket list and it sounds like it couldn’t have been more perfect. A beautiful day including bears, marine animals AND good friends. Thank you for sharing it with all of us. ~Kathy

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    1. Thanks, Kathy – Your words are so true. Yesterday’s weather was absolutely perfect for our adventure. And we saw so many different bears, and such a variety of wildlife that our guides had to add additional wildlife vocabulary to our list (they were helping to teach us the animal names in the Homalco language). Sadly, today’s tour is cancelled due to high winds (and the rain is pouring down in buckets). We truly were lucky!

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  16. Hi, Terri – Thank you for this fun (and very kind) comment. The tour that we took was from Campbell River, Vancouver Island, but we then took a boat to the mainland where the bears were. They were on Indigenous Land so they were never exposed to unchaperoned tourists and were never feed by humans, I think that this made a huge difference in them ignoring us and going about their bear business. Thank you for sharing Wayne’s link. I’ll take a look. Hope all is well for you.

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  17. Pingback: Great Bears of Bute Adventure – A Full Day of Beauty, Wonder and Learning – THE WIDOW BADASS BLOG

  18. Donna,
    Exceptional post–way to go-go-go! I love seeing bears in the wild and your bears are so handsome and healthy-looking. We saw one bear in Glacier (picture below), but he seemed a bit unkempt and frazzled. Thanks for taking us along. Joe

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  20. Well played, Donna! I enjoyed that a lot. Having a tour guide that knows the wildlife and area can add so much to our learning.

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    1. Hi, Peter – When my husband and I are traveling, and there’s an option, we usually opt not to have a tour guide. In this case, all four guides were absolutely amazing. The guide who did the most talking was incredibly knowledgeable and a strong (but non-preachy) Wildlife Ambassador. I learned a great deal from her!

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    1. Hi, Annie – I sang that song with Girl Guides as well… and my grandson loves that tune! Sadly now, I can’t get it out of my head. But that’s a small price to pay for an awesome adventure. Thank you so much for dropping by!

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  22. Hi Donna, Stunning photos and the song was right on! What an amazing adventure to see bears and other wildlife up close on a gorgeous day. Thank you for sharing this. That’s it, I’m coming to visit next year 🙂

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    1. Sorry for the earworm! If you promise not to tell anyone, we see bald eagles most days. But up until now, Richard has been bear repellent and Deb (Widow Badass) has been whale repellent. It was wonderful to have those curses lifted! 😀 Thanks so much for stopping by!

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  25. Humpbacks, orcas, and bears! Oh, my! What an exciting adventure in beautiful British Columbia. One day I would love to see humpbacks and orcas up close. My husband and I live in northern Montana and regularly see bears on our property. We appreciate nature and are grateful for the heart-pounding encounters. Thanks for sharing your story and your amazing grizzly images!

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    1. Thanks, Bethany – We actually saw several different bears on this tour, of alll ages and sizes. Sadly we never saw two or more together. And very fortunately, we were never once followed. Usually, most bears just slowly sauntered out of our sight.
      I hope that all is going well with your new school year!

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    1. I do believe that we saw more than our share. Even our tour guides were surprised. As a bonus, the weather was awesome (but has been raining and windy ever since). Thanks so much for stopping by, Joanne. I greatly appreciate it.

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  31. Oh my – you have some great pictures here! recently took a quiz on what to do when you encounter a bear. They do run fast and climb. I read somewhere that if you climb over 60 feet in a tree, you’ll be okay. That’s pretty high up!

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  32. Donna, a wonderful and fun post! I now have the song on ‘loop’ and the hand drawn effect of the video is brilliant.

    Wow! You certainly did meet a bear or two and these are fantastic photos, they look quite friendly from afar! The wildlife looks amazing and as for the area, stupendous beauty! I LOVE your post!

    When my husband came to Sweden for the first time and we went up North a bit I’d teased him so much about the bears he was nervous to go out into the woodshed in the dark evenings to get the logs. My teasing had been in jest as I thought the bears were a lot further north but then found out there had been sightings nearby … we were both super cautious after that!😀

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    1. Thank you for this lovely comment, Annika. We live in a forested area with black bears literally all around us. Still, we seldom see them. It was a treat to see Grizzly Bears (which are seldom on Vancouver Island) up-close and personal. They did look very friendly — but you know what they say about looks! 😀

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  33. Hi Donna – I’ve never heard that ‘nursery rhyme’ before – but so pleased you had a wonderful trip with The Great Bears of Bute … and were able to catch those amazing photos – delightful and no wonder you were thrilled with the trip.

    I was lucky to see a few about 20 years ago when I drove up to Jasper, and then recently I saw the odd one around the Island. I’d have loved to see more …

    Lovely read and look through – thank you … cheers Hilary

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  36. Oh. My. Goodness!
    What a trip! what sights and wonders! Thank you for sharing it with us. I really wouldn’t know what to do spotting all these wonderful creatures in the wild!

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      1. We don’t encounter wildlife as exciting as yours in Singapore – but I am typically slow to react (ie. Loving Husband is always first to spot a wildboar, or a cobra), or even to realise the danger (ie.staying too long to snap that pic). Having experts with you would certainly help!

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