Paul Filek: Blog Video Series

All I wanted for Christmas was a Moose. Not the stuff you put in your hair, but a real live giant moose.  Not to live with, nor to be my pet, I just wanted to see one in the wild with my very own eyes... And all I got was a lousy black bear.

 About 4 years ago I was hanging out with a friend of mine in a mall in Toronto.  There in the entrance way was this giant bronzed statue of a moose.  I hit my buddy, pointed and started laughing out loud. He didn’t understand what was so funny.  I didn’t understand how he couldn’t see what so humours to me.  Who the heck makes a bigger than life sized model of a bronzed moose and places it smack dab in the middle of a nice mall??  Doesn’t that seem unusually odd and weirdly funny to anyone else?  Then I was informed of the truth.  That model was not a gross exaggeration; it was a replica of real life size moose!  Since being educated about the actual size of amazing creation I’ve grown a slight obsession with seeing one in person.  I need to see it to believe it! Is it really that big?!

 Over the past 18 months I have travelled over 75thousand kilometres across some of the most beautiful scenery in Canada.  What have I seen? Mountain goats, mountain goats, and some more mountain goats. Oh ya and this one time I saw some mountain goats.  I’ve seen foxes, lots of different kinds of deer’s, and I’ve even seen an owl fly over head.  Bald eagles, elk, squirrels, mice, skunks and I think I even saw big foot once.  But never have I seen a moose!

 So there I am driving down the highway.  I’ve just past Jasper Alberta and there on the side of the road………. Is a Car. Not just one car, but heaps and heaps of cars lined up pulled over and on the side of the highway!! Wow I am so excited! It’s got to be a moose!  I slow down and approach with caution because there are not only lots of cars now pulled over but there are lots of people standing beside their cars armed with their cameras! Oh man this is so exciting! It has got to be a moose! What else could be this awesome that so many people would pull over?  There is no way it’s a mountain goat... those bastards are everywhere!! I’m getting closer and closer, my heart is beating faster and faster! Just a few feet away behind some bushes...

It’s a tiny little black bear! Oh my god! I was so upset! I’ve seen a thousand bears in my day and this was what people where so excited about?! I was so upset I speed away.  A few moments passed and I started to laugh and I definitely started to smile.  I smiled for two reasons.  REASON ONE:   I realized that most of those people were obviously tourists and haven’t seen a bear before.  Most of them haven’t seen nature as beautiful as Jasper let alone the Rocky Mountains or any part of Western Canada.  Its amazing how easily a person can take for granted how stunning and amazing this part of the world really is.  So I smiled because I was proud to be Canadian.  REASON TWO:  one of these tourists was actually chasing the little black bear with his camera and one of his buddies.  I was so mad it wasn’t a Moose it didn’t even set in that this idiot was chasing a bear.  Ladies and gentlemen don’t chase bears. You will not win.  I hope those guys were ok and didn’t hurt the bear... and I hope the little black bears mom was standing around the corner. Ha-ha oh what an idiot!

 Take care and see you next week!!

Paul