Great Bear Rainforest (9 page)

I’ve been shivering most of the night. Chilled to the bone. I changed out of my wet clothes and have been sitting close to the fire, but this cold damp air is making it impossible to warm up.

Since dark, the rainforest has been alive with noises. Buzzing and screeching and gruffs and howls. Fortunately, we’ve had no visitors. None that I have seen, anyway.

Okay, just glanced at my expedition watch. It’s time for Gannon’s shift.

MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT


This so-called predator watch has to be the most boring job ever. I’m not even sure why we need to keep watch in the first place. I mean, really, what are we going to do if a pack of wolves comes waltzing into camp? Fight them off with our pocketknives? It would probably be better if we both just slept. The predators are more likely to ignore us that way, and I’ll be honest, if a grizzly does materialize out of the darkness I’ll probably let out a scream that would shake the needles off a Sitka spruce. And what’s that going to do but get us both mauled?

Oh, jeez, what was that?

Something’s moving out there.

I can hear leaves rustling. Branches cracking.

This is crazy!

We’ve burned all the dry wood we collected and the fire is down to a few small flames, but I’m sure as heck not going out to look for more. Not when there’s something lurking out there in the darkness. I’ve got the flashlight next to me, but I’m way too scared to turn it on. I’d probably see twenty glowing eyes right in front of me and there’s no way I could handle that. I’d keel over with a heart attack for sure. Definitely keeping the flashlight off. I’d rather not know what’s out there watching me.

5:56 AM
7° CELSIUS, 46° FAHRENHEIT
CLOUDY, WINDS CALM


At 4:00
AM
sharp, Gannon got me up for the final shift.

“This predator watch just about drove me insane,” he said, slipping into his sleeping bag. “So, don’t wake me until it’s light. And by the way, there are all sorts of animals walking around our camp. I suggest you keep your flashlight off. If you shine it in their eyes, it’ll probably just provoke an attack. Okay then, I’m going to catch some Zs. Enjoy your shift.”

At that he pulled the sleeping bag up over his head. Within a minute he was asleep. Within two minutes, he was snoring. I had to keep hitting him and plugging his nose and doing whatever I could to stop him. The kid sounded like a wild boar rummaging his snout through the mud. I thought for sure the wolves would come running to devour him, if not for the meal he would provide, then just to shut him up so they could have some peace and quiet.

I took Gannon’s advice, put the flashlight away, and sat still next to the dying fire. After adding some wet pine needles and twigs, I stoked the fire and after a while brought back a small flame. The wet clothes I had left on the rocks to dry were still damp. I moved them closer to the pit, hoping the renewed fire would dry them before morning.

Staying dry is critical. Even in September, temperatures at this latitude can drop below freezing. Add wet clothes to the mix and hypothermia becomes a serious threat.

A dim light is just now penetrating the dense canopy overhead. A thin mist floats upward through the trees. The noises that have persisted throughout the night are silent.

Wow! A bald eagle just leapt from a branch and flew directly over our camp. A tremendous “swoosh” could be heard with each flap of the eagle’s powerful wings, which must have had a span of six feet or more. What a beautiful creature!

My superstitious brother would probably say that an eagle flying over our camp was a sign of good luck. I hope it is. We need some luck to find everyone and get back to the ship safely. A lot of it.

The majestic bald eagle

MORNING


When we set out this morning, I was whipped and my head was in a fog and I felt totally uncoordinated as we hiked and was pretty much just staggering down this bear path with my eyes half-closed when we came to a wide tributary. On the other side was a field of sedge grass and in the grass just up from the bank of the river was a family of grizzly bears, a mother and two cubs.

You can tell a grizzly from a black bear by the hump located between a grizzly’s front shoulders, and these were grizzlies, that’s for sure. We were upwind from them and it didn’t take long for the mother to pick up our scent. Obviously, the mama griz wasn’t too thrilled about us being around and stood up on her hind legs to check us out. Talk about intimidating!

“Don’t make any sudden movements,” Wyatt whispered.

“Yeah, no kidding,” I said.

A mother grizzly can be really aggressive if she thinks her cubs are in danger. Remembering what Alu had taught us, Wyatt and I crouched down and backed away slowly, hoping she would understand that we didn’t mean them any harm. I guess she got the message because pretty soon she settled down and went back to eating, uprooting long stalks of grass with her powerful jaws. Once she had a good mouthful, she’d sit back on her hindquarters and chew with her paws dangling limp over her belly. I didn’t know grizzlies eat grass, but Wyatt told me there’s protein in the sedge grass here and the bears apparently love it. Her cubs didn’t seem too interested in eating, though. Instead they wrestled, smacking each other with their paws and rolling around playfully on the shore.

Grizzly cubs love to play

After a while, they tired themselves out. Now they’re just lounging around near the stream not doing a whole lot. To watch these bears, even when they’re doing nothing, is totally mesmerizing. I just wish I had my video camera with me. This footage would be epic, but as a rule you only bring the essentials on a search and rescue mission, so I’m just resting against the rocks and taking it all in.

9:52 AM


Looking through the binoculars gave me a good idea of just how big a grizzly can be. The mother bear’s paws were probably the size of a kid’s baseball mitt. Her claws were every bit as impressive, extending three full inches from her paw. She was lean, with strong muscular legs that bowed out slightly at the lower half. Her coat was long and light brown. Her two cubs had slightly darker coats and were probably a third her size.

We were about to continue our hike when we noticed the mother’s attention turn upstream. All of a sudden she looked disturbed, snorting and nodding her head. Following her line of sight, I saw why. A massive male grizzly had lumbered out of the woods and was crossing the stream. Sometimes the strongest male grizzlies will attack and kill the cubs of other males, a survival instinct that ensures its genes carry on the grizzly bloodline, and not the genes of a weaker male.

Mother grizzly assessing threat of male

The mother grizzly was agitated by the approaching male. He was definitely a threat to the cubs. She knew this and as soon he came across the stream the mother bear charged.

Both bears went up on their hind legs, swinging their immense paws at one another. Even though she was smaller, the female fought hard and seemed to be holding her own. Then the male caught her under the jaw with a powerful blow. She fell backward into the water, rolled onto her side, and struggled to get back to her feet. The male ran after the cubs.

“Run!” Gannon yelled to the cubs. “Run!”

The cubs didn’t need to be told. They saw the male bear coming and took off for the cover of the woods.

“Go! Go! Go!” he kept shouting.

“Shut up, Gannon!” I said. “You’re going to attract the male’s attention and then he’s going to come after us!”

“Sorry,” Gannon said. “I can’t help it.”

Again on her feet, the panicked mother ran after them. When the male stopped just short of the forest, she attacked him again. Even more ferocious than the first attack, the mother was willing to fight to the death to protect her cubs.

Gannon was like a diehard boxing fan cheering on his favorite heavyweight fighter.

“Give it to him, mama bear!” he whispered through clinched teeth. “That’s it! Don’t let him get your babies! Show him who’s boss!”

This time the male wanted none of it. He knocked the mother away with another hard jab before walking back across the creek. The mother limped along the edge of the forest looking for her cubs, growling into the woods in the hope that they would hear her call. I started to worry that she would never find them. If the cubs got lost in the forest, their chance of survival would be slim. Then, suddenly, the cubs appeared at the far end of the sedge field. The mother ran to them and they all tumbled around in the grass. I honestly don’t know that I’ve ever seen such a happy reunion. The bear’s affection, I think, is further proof that certain animal species really do experience love.

MID-MORNING


Not wanting to cross paths with the grizzlies, we hiked in the opposite direction and followed the path along the shoreline and had been going for about an hour or so when we found Mom and Dad’s tender anchored in shallow water just off a sandy beachhead. Oh, man, seeing their boat rocking back and forth in the cove gave me a lump in my throat and a knot in my stomach. I took this huge breath and yelled out as loud as I could:

“Mom! Dad! Can you hear me?”

I kept this up until I was hoarse.

There was no response.

Wyatt and I waded into the cold water to check out the boat. All of the supplies were gone. So were the keys. It was totally empty, which makes us think they came ashore, but we’ve found no other sign of them anywhere. No footprints. No clues. Nothing!

Wyatt tried to radio Liam.

“Wyatt to Pacific Yellowfin,” he said. “Come in, Pacific Yellowfin. We found the second tender.”

Again, there was only static.

“I can’t understand this,” Wyatt said. “I’ve tried every channel, but no radio transmissions are getting through.”

Frustrated, I picked up a rock and chucked it into the woods.

“None of this adds up,” I said. “I’m telling you, there’s something strange going on. Four people just don’t vanish into thin air without a single call for help.”

“What are you saying?” Wyatt asked.

“All I’m saying is that I wouldn’t be surprised if Dr. Brezner has something to do with all of this.”

“Would you get that absurd idea out of your head?” Wyatt yelled. “I’m tired of hearing it. Our parents are missing and you’re trying to place blame. What good does that do? This is a huge wilderness. People go missing in the wilderness all the time! It happens!”

“You have your theory and I have mine!” I shouted back. “I’m not going to argue right now! Bottom line, we have a decision to make!”

And we did. A big one. Continue our search or return to the ship?

Being able to talk to Joe and Liam would be helpful. I mean, the Coast Guard might be en route. Maybe a search is under way. Heck, for all we know, our parents could have been rescued already. Alone on this island with radios that don’t work, we have no way of knowing what’s going on and that’s driving me crazy. Then again, if our parents have been rescued wouldn’t they have already returned to pick up the tender? It’s this assumption that makes me think we have no choice but to keep searching.