canoe trip part one: Bears are scarry...or at least the thought of them

Ok...I'm back from my canoe excursion on the Little Spokane River and Upper Priest lake, ID.
Important things learned...when in the woods, particularly the isolated, way up in the wild woods...you should carry a gun. Now as fond as I am of the above picture of the age old mountain man...I failed to notice the fear chasing, mind calming sedative in his arm...a big rifle. I now have a new goal...get a gun, a big gun, one big enough to stop a bear or cougar dead in its tracks if needed.
I should of listened to the Ranger when he said : "You know the berries are all gone and the bear are hungry"...or when the camp host who was still at the closed campsite, waiting for his grandson to come from "Missoreeeee" to hunt bear said he was talking to an hunter he called "the bear man" and he said there was a grizzly up on trapper Creek that enters upper Priest. Or how he had to chase 5 black bears out of camp that summer and how a grizzly was seen in Nordman, an area not to far from Beavercreek where I was talking to him. But none of that really sunk in until I was miles from civilization at a deserted little camp area on upper Priest lake. I didn't really think much about bears, cougars or the absence of people until it started growing dark and my outpost "camp gunna die" started getting darker. of course about this time the noises start getting louder...and now looking back, I was camped by a creek that poured into the lake...not sure if it was called Trapper's creek. The fire was comforting but my little buck knife just didn't seem that menacing in the face of a 500 bear or Bigfoot. I was frustrated. I had painstakingly hauled all my gear via canoe up t this lake via a 2.5 mile beautiful river to this pristine mountain lake to play Grizzly Adams and forgot about safety. But as I sat there, looking at the 'bear proof" metal containers for storing your food in, that every camp site has...I realized, I didn't have what it took to stay the night out there...alone.

So...I loaded up my gear and put out my fire and launched back out into the lake for a grueling, against the wind return. I ended up having to portage out my canoe and gear via a trail because I was too tired to tackle the lower lake back to my truck. So I hauled the giant two man canoe up a trail...i thought I was going to die from exhaustion.

Learning point number two...a buddy is essential in camping in the wild and for helping carry a canoe uphill.

I will return...with a gun and a buddy for sure.