It had taken some effort to convince John that this was a job for someone else but Megan was happy when Ben stepped in and issued what he called “his last order”. Finally John conceded and could only watch as Megan, Mark and Dave quickly gathered the details from Trav and left.

The news sucked the life out of the office but a cooler of beer that found its way in soon had those remaining sitting around the radio, listening to the play-by-play as Dispatch relayed information to the local hospital, paramedics and RCMP.

“Another bear that’s going to have to be dealt with,” said Ben as the details of the encounter that had sent another mountain biker to hospital with minor injuries were extracted from the radio conversations.

“It might be time to deal with the real problem,” said John, “and put an end to people cutting their own trails in the last strands of bear habitat remaining in the valley. People are the problem. Not the bears.”

Many in the remaining crowd murmured their agreement.

“We’ve been down this road before,” said Ben, regarding the group. “You know as well as I do that management won’t restrict use.”

“I know that,” said John, feeling the liberating effects of a few beer. “But I’m telling you, not as an employee, but now as a member of the general public, that I’m tired of the outfit killing bears instead of kicking people’s asses.”

“Hear, hear,” said a few voices in the room.

“Calm down John,” said Ben. “This isn’t the time to get into this.”

“It’s never the time to get into this.”

“John, for Christ’s sake, let it go.”

“Sorry Ben,” said John as he got up from his chair, grabbed his coat and pack and made for the door. “From now on I’m on the outside looking in. I’d love for you all to back me up, but either way, I’m going to do what I have to do.”

“John, for Christ’s sake, calm down and come back here,” said Ben. “It’s your last day. Don’t end it this way.”

John stopped for a moment and turned back to the crowd who were also drifting for the door.

“No,” he said. “You know I’ve always been a little ‘unorthodox’. Isn’t that the way you described it in my annual evaluations? But I don’t give a shit anymore. No more bears are going to die in this valley if I have anything to do with it.”

*****

“So was it her?” said John, putting a glass of beer down as Megan walked into the house and laid her pack on the table.

“I think so,” said Megan, hauling out her water bottle and reorganizing the pack’s contents. “The biker didn’t get a good look obviously, but he thought he saw cubs. It happened pretty fast.”

“Always does. Was he on a main trail?” John asked as he pulled another beer out of the refrigerator and poured a glass for Megan.

“No, one of the wildlife trails they’ve been cutting out and expanding up into the side hills.”

“They’re never going to learn,” he said as he handed her the glass.

“Most will,” she said as she guzzled a mouthful and wiped the foam from her lips. “I spoke to quite a few people who were up there to see what happened. Most of the local mountain bikers were choked that this guy was in the closed area.”

“But there’s always a few.”

“That’s probably not going to change.”

“What about the bear? Did you guys set some snares? You know she’s the one that’s going to pay the price.”

“The guys did set some snares, but they promised me she wouldn’t be put down. She’s been doing all the right things, avoiding people, staying away from all the attractants in the main valley. She’s the kind of bear we want around here. She just reacted. It was a bluff charge and she never even touched the guy. He just got scraped up pretty bad when he fell of the bike. He was lucky.”

“No, he was stupid. The little sow was lucky she never hurt him or there’d be no recourse but to put her down. What did Dave call her again? Hope?”

“Yah. She’s a beauty from the pictures I’ve got off the camera. And a good mom.”

“Well, here’s to Hope,” said John, raising his glass.

“To Hope,” said Megan, settling into a chair at the table.

“Are you heading back up there tomorrow to check the snares?”

“Yah, at first light. I want to be there if she’s caught.”

“Good plan.”

*****

It had been a few days since the incident and Megan was tiring of the routine. But she was committed to getting up each day to check the snares with Mark who she had easily convinced to accompany her on the early morning forays to the back of the lake.

Having a vet along increased the odds that the little sow would come to the least amount of harm and would be well cared for if she had ended up in a snare. There was also a chance that the cubs would be snared and not the sow, which increased the risk that she might react aggressively to anyone approaching her twins. Mark had convinced Megan to bring the shotgun along as a backup but promised he would only use it as a last resort.

Every morning they found the snares tripped and the bait bags ripped apart. But they found no sign of Hope and her cubs and a quick check of the remote cameras gave no indication that the little sow and her offspring were still around.

Megan wondered if they had been scared out of the area after the incident or if another boar had pushed them further afield. Worried that they might wander into trouble in town she had asked the radio dispatchers to contact her if there were any reports of the sow and cubs so they could be hazed away from any possible run-ins with people.

She had hoped to pick her dad’s brain on the possible whereabouts of the three bears but the early mornings meant early to bed as well and Megan hadn’t seen John all week. When the phone rang late one evening and she tumbled out of bed to answer it, she was surprised to hear her father’s voice on the other end of the line.

“Where are you?” she asked.

“In town. I just heard over the scanner that a bear and cubs were hit on the tracks. Thought you’d want to check it out.”

“Shit.”

There was a moment of silence as Megan collected her thoughts.

“Where have you been all week?” she finally asked. “Every time I check in on you, you’re gone.”

“Oh, I’ve been out and about.”

“You haven’t been up back of the lake I hope?”

The silence on the other end gave Megan her answer.

“Dad. Stay out of there. You’re retired. You don’t work for the outfit anymore.”

“No, I know. It’s a great feeling. Coming and going as I please.”

“But the area is closed to everyone. Even you.”

“So they say, but I’m finding fresh bike tracks there every day. I’m telling you no one’s going to pay attention until someone gets charged. I mean legally. Or charged again by the sow. It’s one or the other I figure.”

“Dad. Maybe you’re right but it’s not your place …”

“Don’t lecture me Megan. If I run into a biker I’ll deal with them. And if I find a bike stashed up there …”

“What are you going to do Dad?”

“Well, I’ve found that a pipe cutter can make quick work of a bike frame.”

“Dad. What? You’re turning into a vigilante?”

“Call it civil disobedience. It has a nicer ring to it.”

“Right Dad. Listen, I’ll go see if the bear hit on the tracks is our girl. I’ll let you know what I find out. But in the meantime, please don’t make my job any harder than it already is.”

“You mean wearing the Haffcut handle? Being related to me?”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it. I’m trying to make things right so bears can still find safe areas around here to do their thing. But first, we’ve got to find Hope.”

“Okay, I’ll stop wasting your time. Get going and let me know if it’s her. I’m crossing my fingers, okay.”

“Okay. I’ll see you this evening. Let’s have supper together. But promise me you’ll stay away from the lake.”

Her last request was greeted by silence and she knew her father had hung up.

Quickly dressing and grabbing her pack, Megan was soon making her way out of town towards the rail line.

*****

“It wasn’t her, was it?” John asked, placing a plate of dinner in front of Megan as she walked into the kitchen.

“No, thankfully,” said Megan. “It was a black bear sow and cubs but they walked away. The locomotive engineer thought they hit her but it’s hard for them to tell. A guy on the highway saw it happen. He saw the bears head for the bush and said it didn’t look like the train hit them.”

“That’s good to hear,” said John, sitting back down at the table. “Any reports of our little grizzly?”

“No. The snares have been tripped every morning but maybe there’s another bear doing that. Some of them are pretty savvy.”

“Yah. Even an old fox could be setting them off and taking the bait?”

“Well, they’re usually ripped apart but the baits are not always gone, which is odd.”

Megan thought for a moment.

“Wouldn’t be a two-legged old fox would it?”

Her father lowered his head and tackled the plate of food in front of him.

“A well fed old fox?” she added, waiting for him to look up.

He had never been any good at keeping secrets from her. She had always been good at reading the signs. Even when her Mom was diagnosed with cancer and they had tried to shield her from the truth, she knew.

“Dad, let this thing run its course.”

“Megan. Hear me out, please. There are only a few possible outcomes to this. If the sow is snared and is handled she becomes a marked bear. Ever time you handle her and her cubs you’re one step closer to habituating them to people, and we both know how that turns out. If she comes back and runs into people again, same outcome, or worse. But if we keep people out of the area there’s a chance that she can pull off raising those twins and there’ll be three bears in the system that are wary of us and taking their own steps to avoid us. I’ve been saying it for years. If we manage our own activities, the bears will take care of themselves. It’s not rocket science.”

Megan pondered her father’s take on things.

“Come with me this evening,” he added. “Try it my way for once and let’s see what happens. But we have to pull those snares.”

*****

It was dusk when they pulled in to the trailhead. Quickly making their way to the site, Megan checked the cameras while John tripped the snares, disconnected them from the cable anchoring them to the tree and placed them in his pack.

“Shit,” said Megan, reviewing the camera’s data on her laptop.

“What’s up?” said John.

“No bears recorded, but two mountain bikers went through just after supper.”

“And you’re surprised?”

“I was hoping they’d learned their lesson.”

“How long since they went by?”

“Less than an hour ago,” said Megan, reviewing the data file.

“Let’s go,” said John. “Maybe we can catch them at the other end of the trail.”

“We don’t really need to,” said Megan. “I think I know who they are. I recognize the bikes and the clothing. I expect there will be some front on shots on the other trail camera so we can positively identify them. If it’s who I think it is they won’t be very cooperative. I’ve talked to them before and they basically gave me the cold shoulder.”

“So what do you want to do?” said John.

“Leave it with me for now. I’ll talk to the law enforcement guys and they can deal with it. I’ll push for them to lay charges. The closure signs are all up and there is no way the bikers can say they missed them. They would have ridden right past them.”

“Or you can let me deal with them,” said John, pulling the pipe cutter from his jacket pocket.

“Yah, like that’s going to help,” said Megan. “If I have to I’ll go to the Superintendent. He might listen to me.”

“Well, good luck with that one,” said John. “Better you than me.”

“Maybe he’ll listen to the voice of reason,” said Megan.

“Is that a dig?”

“Could be,” Megan said with a smirk. “But maybe it’s what I have to do to save three young bears and one old fox from getting into more trouble.”

*****

“Did you hear the news?” Megan asked excitedly as she walked into the house late in the evening.

“No,” said John. “I’ve been home all day minding my own business.”

“Amazing,” said Megan. “All of the stars are aligning.”

“Sarcasm?” said John.

“Just a touch,” said Megan. “But I digress.”

“So what’s the news?”

“Well the Superintendent went above and beyond,” said Megan. “I spoke with him after I passed on the information to the law enforcement guys. I showed him the pictures of the two offending mountain bikers and he didn’t pull any punches. He’s already signed a Superintendent’s Order banning them from the park. And he supported pressing charges. That’ll send a message to everyone to stay out of the closed area.

“Well, I’m gob-smacked,” said John. “Good for you.”

“And that’s not the best part,” said Megan. “When I downloaded the other cameras to get the photos we’d need to positively identify the bikers, there was a series of pictures of the little sow and her cubs. They had missed running into the bikers by a few minutes.”

“More than likely she heard them and took the cubs off trail to avoid them,” said John.

“Which is excellent,” said Megan. “But best of all, I ran into her when I was hiking out. She and the cubs were feeding on buffaloberry. I called out to let her know I was there and she gave a couple of quick snorts and the cubs were gone. They were definitely her first priority. She wasn’t in a hurry but she moved off the trail and kept an eye on me until I had walked past. When I looked back she had wandered off to join the cubs and was gone.”

“So there is hope after all,” said John. “She’s figuring it out.”

“Ten-four,” said Megan, smiling. “Now I just have one old fox to train.”

“That might be a tougher row to hoe,” said her father.

“I have no doubt it will be,” said Megan. “But I think there’s hope for him as well.”