This comes from Eric Cleaveland's blog. I was so moved by the ending ,that I had to let you read it here. What a GREAT story!
Eric writes:
"Today was a great day of wildlife viewing. It started with a fairly cooperative bull Elk right on the side of the road to Lake Louise. However, when the photographer leaves the flash card in the card reader (tucked safely away in his luggage) it makes for difficult picture taking. Let’s blame it on the TOTAL lack of coffee at that point in the morning. Later in the day I saw three Moose. First was the full “Bullwinkle” . Huge, perfect rack, and not real enamored with the motorbike. He CHARGED into the woods as I approached, quite impressive! A little later I passed two cows just munching away about 20 meters off the road. They seemed totally absorbed in just chewing on the grass.
The total Bear count was 10 today. All Black Bears, and all singles except of #s 8 & 9. But it’s the first three that I’d like to tell you about;
Bear #1 was rooting around on the roadside and I saw him from a long ways away. I coasted fairly close to him and got the pictures with the helmet on, still on the bike.
Bear #2 was scampering across the highway being chased by 3 teenage boys! I only hope that once in the woods he turned on them and munched at least one for breakfast. Remember, I’m the guy that had a “Support the Right to Arm Bears” bumper sticker on his truck. I bought it in Churchill, Manitoba after one of my two trips there to photograph Polar Bears.
Bear #3 was also along the roadside, but between the eastbound shoulder and the woods. I stopped my bike on the westbound side and walked across the road to watch and photograph. After putting on my helmet and gloves I looked over my shoulder before pulling back on to the highway. Heading my way was a lone bicyclist. Figuring that at the very least he might want a warning I did a quick U-turn and rode to him. He was most appreciative of my help, and accepted my offer to ride between him and the bear. The bear could care less about us as we passed, I don’t think that he even lifted his head. The young man and I chatted as we slowly rode west. He was from Quebec and had been riding for 5 days. He was enjoying his trip immensely, but mentioned that he was about to return home as he was about out of money. Safely past the bear we wished each other well and I took off towards Jasper. But I couldn’t stop thinking about my new friend and his financial dilemma. And then I had one of those all too infrequent moments of clarity.
Those of you that have been following my progress may remember a chance meeting I had with a group of motorcyclists from Cali, Colombia. We met at a gas station, they were heading home (south), I was on my way to Bogota’ (north). After some group picture taking and hand shaking they handed me almost 100 U$D (in Colombian Pesos). To refuse their generosity would have been very insulting, so I thanked them profusely and promised them that I’d put it to good use.
See where this is going?
Grinning from ear to ear I pulled my bike back on to the shoulder and counted out the Canadian equivalent of my gift from my Columbian friends. Another U-turn and I was headed east, another U-turn and I was in front of my new cyclist friend.
“I have something for you; it’s a gift from some friends you’ll never know in Colombia. Colombia, the country. They gave it to me to give to you, so don’t try to refuse it. Hopefully this will buy you few more PowerBars and a few more nights camping. Don’t thank me; I’m just a convenient courier. Thank the folks in Colombia, and thank the bear."
Picture is property of Eric Cleaveland
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