One of the things I enjoy the most about my job with Knight Inlet Lodge is all the interesting people that I get to meet. Now I say meet but what I really mean is correspond with as very rarely do I get to meet them face to face.

Recently I had the pleasure to "meet" a gentleman who worked as a timber cruiser in Knight Inlet during the mid to late 1950's. Alan first contacted me to purchase one of our "stop the hunt" wrist bands mentioning that he had worked in Knight Inlet. He told me how they found that the grizzlies became used to their presence after a few weeks and would avoid the crew, they knew there were lots of bears around from the bear scat etc, but they would rarely see a grizzly. After awhile the crew stopped carrying firearms to work as they no longer felt threatened by the grizzlies.  I found this unsolicited comment very interesting as it so closely mirrors what we find with the grizzly bears of Glendale Cove today. The fact that they regularly used the grizzly bears trails to travel in the forest gives you an idea as to their comfort level. As Alan commented the crew quickly figured out that the grizzlies knew the easiest way through the forest.

Alan is also the first person I have ever met that knew Jim & Loretta Stanton, well known Knight Inlet pioneers whose experiences were chronicled in the book "Grizzlies in my backyard". Alan remembers Jim Stanton claiming that he could recognize the individual bears of Knight Inlet by sight, a most impressive ability to say the least.

All in all it has been an interesting couple of weeks learning some real first hand history of Knight Inlet. Alan has kindly consented to my sharing this information in a blog, hopefully with more to follow.