As usual, it was Moorthy and me up early in the morning by 7 am. And in 30 minutes, we were ready to step out. As soon as we drove onto the main road, we noticed some rustling among the leaves.
“It’s a moose,” Moorthy exclaimed.
The moose was munching on grass and walking towards the next set of cabins.
I dropped a message in our group for Rakesh and Raghav, informing them that there was a moose near their backyard – but it wasn’t delivered because I didn’t have any mobile network there.
It was quite a cloudy day – the mountain ranges were hidden behind the clouds for the most part, but in some places, you could see them; add to this some purple flowers and greenery on the sides of the highway, and it made for a pretty sight. The morning ride got better as we went further down the highway – there was this point where suddenly the sky was clear – so you had heavy clouds behind you while ahead of you were clear skies.
We were hoping to find a cafe or restaurant, and we spotted a food truck called Moose’s Brew on the side of the highway – perhaps it was part of the lodge that was behind it, but the board did say open. We went around it once to find the counter. Picked up coffee and some bread. We asked for the wifi password, but the lady wasn’t willing to give it – was weird because nowadays every joint gives you access to their wifi, and that too we were buying things from them as well. Suddenly, she shrieked, “Oh, a spider. Yikes. It’s coming here.” And she shut the window of the counter.
“Where’s the spider?” I asked Moorthy.
“Don’t know, man. Maybe above the car.”
She opened the window slightly to pass the receipt while she was chatting with another staff member who was inside the food truck. Quite an awkward moment – all for wifi access!
As we turned the car to start our return journey to the lodge, I shouted, “A moose!”
This one was also eating grass and slowly ambling towards the trees. Had enough time to take a snap, but we didn’t get too close to it – just stayed in the car at a safe distance. Not as terrifying as bears, but moose can also be dangerous. We refuelled on the way back, and by 9 am, we were back in the lodge.
“Did you guys see the moose?”
“No. There’s nothing here,” they said, not believing us.
“There was – we even tried messaging you.”
“You can show them the proof of the photo.” But I didn’t have time to take a snap of the first one, so there was no way to prove it.
“We saw a second one as well. Have proof of that.”
The prep
Folks took turns showering and getting ready before we checked out. And in the meantime, I looked up a few videos and articles on bear spray usage.
‘Don’t fire it in the direction of the wind,’ they would say. But I did wonder that when confronted by a bear, you probably wouldn’t want to turn around and shoot at empty space, hoping the wind will carry the particles to the bear charging behind you! But anyway, for testing, it was a good piece of advice.
You need to be able to operate the spray with a single hand – which includes taking off the safety clip that’s there on the can (prevents anyone from accidentally pressing the spray). It sort of looks like the Wild Wild West movies, where you’d have Clint Eastwood draw the gun from the holster in a single-handed sweep and fire; you need to do something similar here!
‘Don’t keep the spray inside your backpack’ – can’t be digging through your bag to find the can while a bear is nearing you!
‘Don’t spray it on clothing’ – unlike insect repellents, bear sprays don’t work the same way – the odour left behind by the spray may actually attract a bear to the place!
I cut open the pack and first tried to pull out the safety clip – I struggled to get it off using both my hands, and this was meant to be done single-handed! After a few times putting it on and off, I got the hang of it—it gets a little easier as it gets smoother.
“Time to test this.”
“You are going to shoot?” asked Moorthy.
“Yes.”
The action
A few feet away from our cabin and our vehicle, in the middle of the woods, I did the single-handed flick to get the clip off. I confirmed the wind direction and depressed the trigger on top of the can. An orange stream of particles burst forth for a fair distance, with a fair amount of force, towards our vehicle. It was pretty cool.
Moorthy came out to take a video. “Do it again,” he said while standing on the wooden porch and getting his focus right.
I heard Raghav cough lightly a couple of times from inside the cabin.
Moorthy said, “Start.” And I repeated the one-handed firing sequence like Eastwood.
“Not much smell?”
“No – slight burning smell. But since we fired in open air, and the wind is going that way, it must’ve spread out.”
I shook the can to estimate how much spray was left— there was still a decent amount inside after a couple of shots. They say when you face a bear, you fire it just for 1 or 2 seconds, and then, reassess the situation; if the bear advances, then repeat again, and you may be able to get 3 or 4 rounds of shots before the can goes empty.
We heard Rakesh cough a couple of times – he was in the bathroom, inside the cabin. I put on the safety clip. As I neared the cabin, I heard Raghav cough, and when I entered, I coughed a couple of times as well. I was at the doorstep, and since I was coughing, I stepped back a bit. Moorthy was standing outside, busy checking out the video recordings on his camera.
Then we heard Rakesh coughing again. Seemed strange. A couple of seconds later, he coughed again harder… and then again… and then we knew there was something wrong – the intensity of the cough wasn’t reducing. And Raghav also coughed, but not as strongly as Rakesh.
“Rakesh, are you ok?”
And in response, we heard coughing!
He came running out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, coughing and struggling to speak. “Burning. Something in the throat. Something is coming inside.”
Raghav peeped into the bathroom, and he started coughing. “It’s inside.”
A moment later, I coughed, and so did Moorthy.
“Man, it’s the bear spray.”
“You sprayed it inside the cabin?” Rakesh asked, shocked.
“No. I sprayed it there in the open, far away from our cabin. How could that come inside the cabin, and that too, in the bathroom?”
It’s an irritation in the back of your throat.
“The bear spray worked on the bear!” we were joking just yesterday that Rakesh was dressed like a black bear – in a black jacket and black sunglasses.
“Man, it’s the fan in the bathroom. It’s fully in the bathroom,” Moorthy said as he stepped in to inspect. And then he also joined in the coughing.
We switched off everything in the bathroom and stepped outside.
“It probably was pulling in the air from outside rather than working the other way round.”
“The wind was blowing away, and maybe the particles just got carried away.” Was a bit of a strange path, but possible – the wind stream needed to have veered to the right to carry the particles towards the bathroom.
“Man, how did you manage to stay so long in the bathroom with that?” Moorthy asked him.
The bathroom was quite suffocating with the strong smell of the chemical.
“I didn’t know. I thought it was some passing smell. Just check if it’s poisonous?”
“No, it’s not from what I’ve read.”
But I still double checked online – you definitely shouldn’t be using this to spray another human, but here, since it wasn’t a direct attack, didn’t seem like it should be an issue. By now, within the whole cabin, we could feel the peppery stinging odour; and with even a slight whiff of it, we would cough instinctively! We had to wait for a while for the smell to disappear. Rakesh’s coughing finally reduced as we spent more time outdoors.
I felt quite confident now in being able to use the bear spray if required! Just that our friendly bear, Rakesh, had to suffer a bit for me to learn 🙂
Some tips on bear spray: https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/species/livingwithwildlife/bears/pdfs/bear_spray_what_you_should_know.pdf