Juniper

I scored a free bear tour through work yesterday - they usually cost CA$190 so was stoked to get a freebie! Anyway, it's towards the end of the season and most of the berries have been eaten now so the bears are getting ready for hibernation but we did manage to spot Juniper, a 5 y.o. beautiful female black bear - although she does look a bit like a pig in this particular angle, I assure you that in real life, she is absolutely magnificent.

We got pretty close - I took this pic from no more than 10m away. We stayed with her about 20 minutes, just watching her. The best part was that 5 people cancelled at the last minute, so it was just myself, Michael Allen ('the' world wide expert on black bears) and one other lady - very special.

We also got to see a bear den and learn about the whole hibernation process, and saw another BIG male bear - he was about 100m away and we couldn't get any closer to him - but he was seriously big so I didn't mind...

I also got a good appreciation of just how huge Whistler mountain is - there is SO much terrain here - and it's all so beautiful! Can't imagine what it's like covered in snow - a real winter wonderland! The scenic shot is taken from about 3/4 the way up Whistler mountain and looks down on Whistler village. I have delicately sketched a replica of our house into the picture so you can see the location - I suspect it's a bit like "Where's Wally" in that it's so well, and discretely drawn that one would hardly notice it had I not written it down... All I can say is that in terms of finding a 'home away from home' this is hard to top!