Of Snowshoes and Bear Dens

Important! Picture gallery at the end!

It was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I wasn’t about to pass out on. True, some people may argue that with a little bit of planning and determination, one can easily organize such a trip as well. To which I would say that there are many things in this world that can be easily done with planning and determination but often not done due to many reasons or circumstances.

So when life gives you lemons, you try to make orange juice out of it.

Wait, that didn’t seem right. Oh… You’re supposed to make lemonades out of it. But I’m sure you got the idea.

About two week ago I went to a church in Little Falls where they had a Wild Game Feed night. Basically, they cook up whatever the church members have managed to hunt or fish the past season and serve it out to people. It’s what they do to introduce international students to the community and culture. On that day I met some fine people and I had a great time there tasting the different dishes they had.

Though I have to admit I am not much of a carnivore myself, it was the experience that I craved and enjoyed. At least now I can tell people I know what deer meat tastes like.

So when they sent me an email a day after that event telling me that they might be having a snowshoeing and pizza making day coming up during Spring Break, I jumped at the opportunity and quickly signed up for it. How was I to know that it would only get better? I originally felt that it would be a good time killer for Spring Break. Getting out of St Cloud State University would be good for me and pizza making… It’s about time I learned how to make some western dishes eh?

Surprise surprise! A few days ago they sent me another mail telling me that there’s been some changes to the plan. We’ll be having an opportunity to see some bears! Hibernating bears and we’ll even get to touch and cuddle with them!

Waking up today was tough. I was sleepy but I forced my butt off my bed and clambered myself through the usual patterns I go through. Stumbling into the warm winter day (it was only -5c) I was greeted by Marise’s warm smile. I invited her along because I knew she wasn’t going anywhere either. Knowing me, I kept us both laughing most of the time. We even met an Armenian called Arpi and while she had an accent I had to try and decipher she was pretty interesting too.

It was hard for me to imagine when she told me she grew up in Armenia and it’s 94% Armenians there. Growing up in a country where diversity is expected and commonplace… It can sometimes be tough for me to imagine growing up in a country where not only is your ethnicity the dominant one but rather the only existing one.

We were fairly entertained (and hungry) as we waited for some others that were late to arrive. Knowing myself pretty well however, as the van started moving my eyes started drooping and before I knew it I was dozing away.

When we got to the beautiful church we were welcomed in and I met more familiar faces from my last visit there. However I had some problems remembering their names. Our breakfast/lunch was homemade pizzas! Which was really simple but absolutely delicious since we got to pick our own choice toppings. I made mine with lots of tomatoes, chicken, pepperoni, cheese and mushrooms. I saw some others topping their pizzas full but I kept mine moderate so that I won’t have a tough time chewing them down.

Boy oh boy was that good!

But the best part was when we finally went to Camp Ripley. Camp Ripley’s a military camp where many of the nation’s recruits are sent for training. I can’t remember the exact number but if I’m correct it’s about 53 thousand acres large. 27 miles long and 1 or 2 mile wide. To say that it is huge is an understatement. They have a airstrip and everything else you can think of. An area where soldiers can simulate urban warfare, an area for artillery to fire and even an area where they practice having tanks move across the river.

In short? Simply spectacular place.

Why you may ask? No not because of all the training that goes on there. It is because even though it is a military camp it’s a place where you find wildlife everywhere as well. I was lucky enough to have a Mr Marty from the Environment Education Center (least that’s what I think it was called) take us around. He works for the Minnesota National Guard and what he does is he specializes in making sure the environment and the needs of the military are both kept in check.

He ensures animals can still stay there peacefully and that the National Guard can train their cadets as well.

He gave us military-grade boots and had us walk on a frozen lake to experience snowshoeing. The view was simply astounding. Everything was peaceful and there we were a bunch of international students and our guides stumbling on the ice with our snowshoes. It was definitely an experience. We even had a race with our snowshoes on and we were throwing snowballs at each other (at least Marise, Hatim, Zubair and I was).

But the end of the short (it felt short anyway) experience couldn’t come soon enough. What we were waiting for was the bear hugging part! Here’s something interesting. The bears there are actually staying just across the road from the artillery impact zone! Meaning when training is going on the bears are constantly hearing explosions that come from the opposite side of the road. And they’re cool with it!

When I got to the site there were a group of people there doing tests on the bear cubs. They’re yearlings and so they were still pretty small. About the size of my rottweiler or slightly larger. They were people from the Department of Natural Resources and if I’m not mistaken even a professor from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

Unfortunately for me I didn’t get to touch the bear because they were running all sorts of tests on them. Doing electrocardiograms and sonograms on the bear while checking its body fat and tagging them. Confusing stuff but absolutely captivating how they handled the bear. It’s obvious the bear is half awake but it just seemed to be so docile! They even accidentally dropped the second cub when they were trying to weigh it! And it just ignored them!

Well yeah they’re sedated and still in the hibernating period but one would expect some reaction right? Apparently not…

I’m glad to say that before I left I did manage to stroke the bears’ fur. I asked the people on site and they allowed me to. So while I finally got an opportunity to feel bear fur I didn’t get to take many pictures with it nor cuddle with it.

That trip was wonderful. It beats being stuck in my room in Lawrence Hall. I heard plans about a canoe trip at Camp Ripley this coming Summer and if it’s possible I’ll definitely be joining. However if it’s happening during July-August I’ll probably be missing it…

I brought back a bunch of posters too!

Oh those bears are so adorable! But a picture’s worth a thousand words so I present to you… The Gallery!