Highballer. Greg Nolan

collection of bread and rolls. But what really floored me was the area devoted entirely to desserts. Those items occupied twice as much table space as all the other lunch items combined. There were apple, strawberry, rhubarb, cherry and blueberry pies. A variety of lavishly iced cakes occupied the shelf above. Cookies, tarts, turnovers, brownies, fruit squares, Nanaimo bars, eclairs, Danishes and doughnuts. It was total madness.

      Back at the dining area I spotted Kelly, my foreman, setting a plate of bacon and eggs on one of the tables that were made available to us. Kelly was an intense fellow, but it was a palatable intensity. He had the biggest, roundest blue eyes I had ever seen. The rest of his facial features were obscured by a thick black beard that merged with his straight, bowl cut. Kelly always seemed to have a knowing grin on his face, as if he were able to read your deepest thoughts.

      As I approached his table to bid him good morning, he looked up and asked, “You didn’t think to bring a rifle along, did ya?” Before I could respond, the mess hall door flew open and Ricky and Zach barged in, deeply engaged in conversation, oblivious to the disapproving glares from the locals. It then occurred to me why Lady had been barking so anxiously earlier on, and why Kelly would ask such an odd question. From that point on, our mess hall conversations were dominated by the talk of bears. Grizzly bears.

      The drive to our first cutblock was a short hop from the logging camp. Along the way, Ricky and Zach described spotting a bear on the other side of the creek at roughly 4:30 a.m. It emerged within fifty or sixty metres of their campsite (their tents were close to the trailhead). It was fairly dark at that early hour, but from what little they could see, they estimated it was a large animal. Lady was the first to detect it, picking up its scent from inside Ricky’s tent. When Ricky turned her loose, she immediately bolted to edge of the creek to challenge it. When the bear was slow to retreat, Lady crossed over and gave chase. The confrontation lasted well over an hour. The barking I’d heard on my way to breakfast was apparently the tail end of that episode. This got me thinking about my preference for privacy at the far end of the corridor.

      Our focus soon shifted to planting. Being the first out of the truck and the first to bag-up, I was the first carve off a piece of the mountain. This was my very first piece of coastal terrain. It was challenging. The slash was bigger and deeper than in the Interior. The stumps and root swells were often several metres in diameter, rather than just a foot or two. The brush was thicker and higher.

      I couldn’t get the thought of a grizzly encounter out of my mind. I was on edge all day, reacting to every little sound and vibration around me. The day progressed without incident, though, and as usual, it ended almost as soon as it began. Time flies when you’re hard at work creating a new forest.