Sandy explores an Ancient Forest

There is a beary famous forest in our neck of the woods. It is called Cathedral Grove and some of the trees there are 800 years old! That's way older than this little bear... Let's see, that would be... 1213 AD I think. Way before Columbus and Jacques Cartier!

Yup, those are big trees!!

My goodness... the tree is almost too wide for the photo. It is a Douglas Fir, you can tell by the gnarly bark...

They are super tall too!

Hmmm... this little baby tree looks like it got started at a weird spot! Now it's trying to grow down and find some dirt... or grow up and sideways and??

Whoa!! Can you even see me in the photo?

I wonder if there are any honey combs up there...

It sure is peaceful in the forest...

This tree is the oldest and tallest in the park!

According to the sign, it is way taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy... If you look beary closely, you can see some tiny people in the picture between the tree and the tower... That tells you how small humans are compared with this tree. A little bear would just be a speck on that diagram!

Of course there are some pretty ferns here as well.

And a lake too... but too cold to swim in.

Some trees have fallen down and this old cedar has a beary interesting and scary looking root-wad. Can you see me in there?

Oh Oh!!! This is an edible mushroom!!! It is called Bear's Tooth mushroom! It is a beary funky mushroom and Gramma has told me it is a "choice" one to eat. Too bad she's not here to eat it... because Mama wrinkles her nose at the thought of eating mushrooms! Which I don't understand because in Vietnam she ate a live cricket and cooked crickets! How are mushrooms worse than crickets??
Uh-oh... Mama's giving me "The Look"... I better go now!

Prehistoric Fern Forest (maybe)

Things grow pretty big out on the temperate rain forest near the coast of British Columbia. The trees are big. The fish are big. The bears are big. The ferns are massive! From his visit to the Royal Tyrrell Museum last month, Sandy knows that ferns have been around for a very long time... and that prehistoric forests were full of cycads and fern-trees. But his experience of ferns has been... well... that they are pretty small (maybe two-bears tall). But here... here on the west coast... they are big!!

These ones are called bracken ferns and they grow pretty much everywhere. But the ones here are... well.. quite tall! Looking out over them, you would have no idea that there is a little bear tucked away in the fern forest.

Some of these ferns are even taller than Mama and look quite impenetrable from her vantage point. But down at Sandy's level... it all opens up!

Sandy could almost imagine that he was back in prehistoric times stalking through a fern forest.... avoiding dangerous dinosaurs!

An encounter with wise old owl

Little bear was walking through the forest, minding his own business, enjoying all the greenery, when all of a sudden he froze (he does that very well). Oh my goodness... it was an owl!! An honest to goodness owl... and little bear wondered if he might not become an owl snack! But after remaining frozen (torn between fight or flight), little bear eventually realized the owl wasn't moving either... in fact, it was maintaining a rather wooden pose.

Little bear tiptoed through the tiny green plants and eventually realized... it was a wooden owl!! A carving of all things...

Well, it didn't take very long before little bear was standing on top of the world (or at least the owl)! And off he went again, with a spring in his step, peering behind trees, looking for more exciting animals! And sure enough... it wasn't long before little bear found... another owl!

Little bear wonders if all of these owl carvings mean that real owls are haunting these woods as well... oooh... With that realization, little bear doesn't have quite such a spring in his step, and in fact, a distant "whoo-hoo" noise has little bear running for shelter!

No-No, little bear... owls don't hang around during the day. That was just a train in the distance... So, once again little bear scampers down the trail and meets... another tree spirit... but this one is different from the bearded one he saw a few days/weeks ago.

Let's just say that this one validates all that little bear has been saying about pterodactyls and dragons lurking in dark corners! Clearly... if there is a carving of a dragon tree spirit... then dragons must exist as well! (Little bear's logic is impeccable sometimes).

Peeka-a-boo... I see you!

Little bear is discovering that there are all sorts of places to hide when trees are this big! Although there isn't much underbrush to hide behind, he is testing his Hide-and-Seek skills. His first hiding place is certainly inventive (a hollow birch bark tube), but little bear isn't quite little enough!

One of the places looks like a great hiding spot except... it's awfully dark in there (extremely dark)... and little bear thinks dragons might live in there!

Sometimes it's not even dead tress that provide a great hiding spot... but living trees as well. This spot has several nooks and crannies and was a very good hiding spot until little bear ruined it by looking to see if anyone had found him! Silly bear...

But his best spot was very good... can you see little bear?

If only his black nose and eyes didn't give him away!

A moving bear gathers no moss?

One of the things little bear is noticing in this preview of spring, is that he is in a place that is a lot (I mean a LOT) moister than flatland. The earth is moist... there are little boggy areas everywhere, the trees are bigger, and everything just seems more lush and fruitful. Which includes the moss.

There is moss everywhere... and all sorts of moss as well. Little bear is checking out some Electrified Cat's Tail Moss, although he does wonder why, yet again, something is named after a cat (remember the whole Pussy Willow fiasco). Little bear isn't sure what to do with the moss... but tries it on for size...

 The thing with moss though... is it looks deceptively solid, when in fact, it might not be. Little bear has an encounter with Step-Moss and while at first he thinks he can walk on it quite happily...

He soon learns, that his little feet don't give him a lot of support and that moss is actually quite deep...

Oh little bear... swimming through the moss... he has never seen this back in flatland! And then of course... there's another type of moss (really more of a lichen) that is called Old Man's Beard... It grows everywhere here... and comes in a variety of fetching styles and colours...

It is also great for starting a fire... but has many other uses (primarily at Halloween)... Little bear experiments with a new hairdo... (he could be a rock star in his next life...)

And then tries another option... Maybe we should be calling it Old Bear's Beard....

There are trees... and then... there are TREES

So little bear is a flatlander bear... he knows prairies... he knows horizons... and he thinks he knows trees. But now he's getting a crash course in mountains... and glaciers... and trees! Back where he comes from, trees come in a variety of sizes... from little scrawny stick things to moderately scrawny stick things. This would be a typically-sized tree for little bear... (actually a big tree, because he can't wrap his arms around it!)

But now... little bear realizes that his education in trees has been sorely lacking. First off... trees out west are big! And they are plentiful! There are trees everywhere, up the mountains, down the mountains, along the rivers, even in the rivers!

And the industry around here centres on trees... logging... everywhere. Little bear didn't know that there were so many trees in the whole wide world.

So many trees, so much lumber... at least they can use it to build some very solid bridges. Little bear remembers the very scrawny bridge across his river back home... the one that was almost falling apart. But here, they have a very solid bridge built over a tiny little channel that looks like it wouldn't hurt a fly! Now this a bridge that little bear feels comfortable in crossing. He figures he could jump up and down on this bridge and it wouldn't move a millimetre... now that's a bridge...

 Little bear also learns that trees can have a whimsical side... they might even have tree spirits residing in them... oohhh... Little bear heard that and immediately went on the prowl to discover tree spirits. He looked inside the trees (when he could)... and didn't find anything other than rotting wood and dust...

You have to remember though, that little bear looks at things from a little bear perspective (8 inches off the ground)... When he was reminded to look up, he finally saw it... a tree spirit!! This one looks very old and venerable but didn't object when little bear asked if he could have his picture taken...