A risky lunch in Canadian bear country

I am writing this column from Kasba Lake Lodge in northern Canada.  On the border between Northwest Territories and Nunavut, about a thousand miles north of Winnipeg, Manitoba.  

My wife and I arrived here on July 2.  She left after two weeks of the best fishing ever.  We are both happy.  She gets a mini vacation without me.  And I get two more weeks of fishing. 

The hordes of black flies and mosquitoes have run their course.  There are some stragglers, but the hatches are over.  The big lake trout are moving up from the depths for a last feed of the summer.   

Now instead of feeding on bugs, the lake trout are feeding on cisco herring.  And when cisco are surfacing, the lake trout go nuts.  I am still looking for a fifty pounder this year, and my hopes are high. 

In the meantime, let’s talk about food.  Yes, even with the Kasba chef preparing breakfasts and dinners, there’s still another meal each day. 

And nothing beats shore lunch.   

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Fresh fish.  Caught shortly before being cleaned and cooked.  On some days we eat the delicate pink flesh of lake trout.  On others we eat cake-like northern pike.  And sometimes we choose the slightly oily but very delicate Arctic grayling.  

The guide prepares the fish in one of four ways.  Seasoned and grilled over an open fire.  Covered with various coatings and deep fried in hot lard.  Cooked in foil wrap with vegetables and seasonings.  Or raw sushi style. 

Remember the sushi fish is fresh, taken from the cold waters of the pristine Kasba Lake.  Carefully prepared by a guide who washes his hands in the lake.  Then a strip of the fish filet is laid on a rock in the sun.  Seasoned for a few minutes under a light coating of wasabi.  That’s the super hot green sauce different from horseradish and chilli or hot peppers. 

My wife and I especially enjoy foil wraps.  The guide prepares these with a variety of flavorings and vegetables.  Mexican with peppers, beans and onions.  Hawaiian with pineapple sweet sauce.  French with a luscious guide-made sauce and variety of vegetables.  Greek with feta cheese, tomatoes, olives and tomatoes.  And other recipes. 

We also enjoy an onion bomb.  That’s a large sweet onion with a wad of butter, salt and pepper, wrapped in aluminum foil and placed in the hot coals while lunch is cooking.  When finished the onion bomb is as sweet as sugar and delicious. 

Dessert is usually fresh fruit coupled with a cookie or two. 

Sometimes in season if someone is brave, we steal blueberries from the river banks where the bears come to eat the fruit by the paw full. 

One day we had shore lunch on the pristine Kazan River.  For years we had eyed a secluded spot on a hill overlooking the river next to blueberry clusters.  A place where bears congregate in blueberry season. 

The bush where we needed to tie off the boat was really thick.  We tied up anyway and had to push down the undergrowth into the water to give us some support.  That would allow us to gingerly move from the boat to the shore without getting wet feet.  Then when we got onto solid ground along the shore, the guide had to traverse the bush to get everything we needed for lunch.  I had to get my fishing rod. 

The guide moved all his cooking gear to the top of the hill.  Meanwhile I carefully cast into the fast water angling for lunch.  Sure enough a nice laker.  About 3 pounds.  Perfect lunch size.  I brought the fish to hand which was no small feat while I am waste high in bush. 

I held the fish by its chin and carried it up the hill. 

No problem.  The guide was ready.  He slit the still flapping fish into two filets and everything else.  He threw the everything else somewhere into the bush.  I started the fire with small kindling lying on the ground.  Then added some dry limbs that were lying mostly under the bush. 

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It wasn’t long until we had coals.  On to the grill went foil packs of fresh vegetables.  Into the coals went a sweet onion with butter wrapped in foil as well.  Pretty soon the fish was carefully laid on a grill we had brought with us. 

It wasn’t long until lunch was served.  Heaven.  

Then it dawned on the guide and me about the same time.  We were lunching in one of the most beautiful spots on earth.  It just happened to be in prime bear country.  We noticed that the blueberries were in full fruit.  And we were advertising ourselves by eating fish over an open fire with the everything else of the fish closeby wherever the guide had thrown it. 

None of this was a good idea. 

I looked at the terrain and tried to figure how many steps from us to the boat.  And how fast we could get there if need be.  Not close enough.  Not fast enough through the bush. 

The guide and I didn’t take time to eat the remainder of our lunches.  He gathered his cooking gear.  I grabbed my fishing equipment.  And we hightailed it down the hill through the bush to the boat. 

Lucky. 

We pushed off.  Settled into the boat and ate dessert.  Oatmeal cookies.  Then freshly cut watermelon. 

As I began fishing, the guide noted there was movement at our lunch spot.  The bears had found our lunch and were rummaging through the food we had left. 

We looked at one another and made an agreement. 

Lunch spots will not be chosen in the midst of bear country ever again.  

Bill Gindlesperger is a central Pennsylvanian, Shippensburg University trustee and founder of eLynxx Solutions that provides Print Buyer’s Software for procuring and managing direct mail, marketing, promo and print.  He is a board member, campaign advisor, published author and talk radio commentator.  He can be reached at Bill.Gindlesperger@eLynxx.com.