Guest column: I charged a bear

Guest column: I charged a bear

Published 10:39 am Tuesday, September 22, 2026

In August I met a bear.

Here is exactly what happened.

A mother bear with her cub and I with my pups, Skye and Jo, met in the forest in North Cowichan on a well-trodden path near a carcass that the bears had been eating.

We didn’t see each other until the last moment. My Shetland sheepdogs were a few feet ahead of me. They trotted over the lift of the hill. The cub must have smelled us before we saw it. Suddenly, silently, Skye and Jo took off. I looked up in surprise and saw the cub climbing a tree just ahead. Halfway between the tree and me, Skye and Jo halted, considered, then returned to me as they have been trained to do.

It happened in a nanosecond. She rose up out of the salal beside the tree. She paused. Then the mother bear charged toward Skye, just as Skye was arriving at my side.

Something took me over. I charged the bear.

When we met the bear, we could have been walking on any of the Six Mountains in the wild. True to habit and preference, we should have been walking the deer trails of Stoney Hill, our backyard, my backbone, the mountain I have explored and loved, with generations of shelties, since a child. But Skye, Jo, and I were walking in the heavily-trodden, tourist destination, Stoney Hill Park.

Over time, the park trails have come to serve as the perfect boardroom for spontaneous forest advocacy. They are the place I take the pulse of the population. Do people know what is happening politically? Do they care? Who will take action? Who will show up at council meetings and public meetings to protect the forests?

So two mothers met in the park. The most public place possible. For more than 60 years I have walked in the wilds. Not once, have I encountered a bear.

After our encounter with the bears, Skye, Jo and I walked half a mile before encountering human beings. I told them they might want to turn back as there was a mother bear with her cub up ahead. They stared at me. It turned out I was bleeding. They looked scared. I wasn’t scared. I just wanted to go home.

I wanted to be home, alone with Skye and Jo. Then later we would walk back into the forest to get back in the saddle. We were not going to carry bear spray. We were going to learn from our experience. Going forward we’d make noise in the forest. We’d bark and sing our hearts out!

When we arrived at the park entrance, I was still feeling no pain. I had no idea I was limping. I didn’t know I had a broken ankle. I didn’t know I had a torn lung. I didn’t know my shoulder was twisted, dropped and hanging. I didn’t know I had bleeding tooth scratches on my chin and punctures on my upper shoulder and neck, above an artery and several nerves. I didn’t know I had a lump the size of a golf ball on the back of my head, and a concussion, ramping up. In fact I had just thought I had a mildly twisted ankle, and was feeling pretty good.


As we were approaching the parking lot, a kindly, retired fireman walked toward me. He took one look at me and grabbed my good arm. I didn’t know I was leaning precariously sideways. He gently made me sit down. He began to clean my wounds. He told someone to call an ambulance.

By the time I was wheeled into Emergency, a story about a bear attack was viral online. The version of the story being told wasn’t exactly my version of the story. But as friends told me about the things being said, all I could think was Go Team!

These people posting on social media were making the little local story grow from one bear to all bears, including the peril to their habitat and their very survival, and the importance of protecting the forests.

Within hours the bear story was picked up by three new stations and was broadcasting all over the province. Just before the October election! People who love bears were spreading the most important political message. I didn’t have to lift a finger. I didn’t have to create another petition. All I had to do was stay still, heal, and feel grateful the little story was out there working for the forests.

Five weeks have passed. I’m beginning to recover my balance.

We are in a critical moment, on the verge of local elections which could decide the future of our ecosystems. Our natural forests in B.C. are almost gone.

If you care, if you love bears and all species, including our own, learn about the candidates in your area. And then, Oct. 17, vote in councillors who share your values.