Far North Rambles: Luxury - A Tent With Three Doors
Everyone who has worked, camped, or lived near the bush has their share of bear stories. I will share one of mine: the evening a black bear added two extra doors to our 14 x 16 foot cotton office tent.
We had our tent camp (Photo 1) set up at the old, closed Kenilworth Mine site (Photo 2), just south of Timmins, Ontario. I could not understand why there were so many bears in the area. Each night, we were awaken by the heavy breathing of a bear outside the tent wall or on moonlit nights, I was spooked by the shadow cast on the tent wall of an enormous bear, perhaps 3x the size of a regular bear. Many nights, I had get up and chase away a bear using the truck to encourage it to give us space.
Photo 1: This is the cotton office tent that the bear went through. The tent is set up beside a weigh station on the road that leads up to the old, closed Kenilworth Mine, located south of Timmins, Ontario. We cooked in the garage that contained the truck scale. Photo taken summer 1978.
Photo 2: The view from the office tent looking up the mine road to the white office building and the headframe structure of the old Kenilworth Mine, located south of Timmins, Ontario. Photo taken summer 1978.
Eventually, I visited the local Ministry of Natural Resources Conservation Officer (CO) to ask if they could help. The CO listened carefully, suggested several options, and asked where our camp was located. He burst out laughing when I told him. He said “don’t you know the City of Timmins garbage dump is located about 0.5 kilometre away from you and the bears use that mine road as a superhighway to dump?” His professional advice? Move the camp! Sadly, that was the best geographic location for our camp, so we elected to stay. We were on our own.
There was a watch dog at the Kenilworth Mine named Laddie (Photo 3). Bill, the mine caretaker, welcomed our camp because it added extra security both for the mine and Laddie. Bill lived in town, so our camp would help discourage human visitors to the mine site. Laddie had experienced a rough life and was afraid of humans and bears. Bill and his wife adopted Laddie, moved him to the old mine site, and visited daily to feed him. Laddie was NOT a “Karelian bear dog”, but he became a gentle friend that summer and we kept a bag of dog cookies in the office tent to feed him.
Photo 3: This is the only photo I have of Laddie, the “watch dog”. Laddie was frightened of humans and bears, but he lived a good life in the vacant office building at the old, closed Kenilworth Mine, located south of Timmins, Ontario. Laddie was happy to accompany us on our walks around the mine property, but there was an invisible line that he would not cross and he never left the general area. Photo taken summer 1978.
Most evenings, we headed into Timmins to do the daily map work at the local Government office. One evening, we returned long after dark and saw that the tent was flapping in the wind, but in places it was not designed to flap. Oh No. There was one big hole on one tent wall and a second big hole on the other side! We assessed the damage. Only two items were missing - the bag of dog cookies and a plastic 5 gallon water container. Our first priority that night was to sew up the tent using fishing line. It was buggy and we needed to sleep without being eaten alive by the mosquitoes.
The following day, we shared the story with Bill. He laughed and reminded us that it was a bad idea to store dog cookies in the tent. We graciously agreed. He also said a bear generally does not exit through the same hole it enters; hence, the two extra doors in our tent. We were lucky the bear had not shredded the tent.
No doubt the bear proudly shared with its friends the luxurious take-out dining experience it had enjoyed at the white tent, complete with mineral spring water. Sure beats the dump food.
Laddie had to forgo one evening of dog cookies. The replacement bag of dog treats was kept in the truck from that day on. We got to resew the tent walls because the emergency job was inadequate. I became skilled at chasing the bears away every night for the rest of the summer. But it is a good grandchild story.
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Andy Fyon, Nov. 20, 2020 (Facebook post, Nov. 20, 2020)