For your reading enjoyment, this is a summer’s tale that is loosely based on a bush tale I heard many years ago. Back in the days before electronic devices when people used to talk to one another.
It was the middle of a long hot summer, and a lot of people were out camping along the roads, at various camping spots, some official, some not. At one of the camping areas beside a nice sandy beach, three fellows decided to go fishing for the morning. I suspect in part because they liked fishing and it just happened to give them a chance to get away from their families for a while.
As noon approached, they came back to the beach and pulled the front of the boat up on the sand. Then they went to their camp sites to grab a bite to eat and to replenish their beer supply. At the other end of the beach, some kids and their parents were enjoying the day. A young black bear came out of the bush and walked to the boat, because it was curious, and it could smell the ciscos that the fishermen had been using as bait.
It sniffed around, it pawed the boat a few times, and then climbed in and walked to the back of the boat. This extra weight pushed the back of the boat a little deeper into the water and raised its bow off the sand. An offshore breeze caught the now floating boat and it started to drift away from the shore. The families on the beach saw this happening and told the kids, go find those fellows who left their boat here and tell them that a bear is stealing their boat.
So, the kids went running up to where people were camped shouting “A bear, a bear is stealing a boat from the beach.” Well, the three fellows who had left their boat there went running down to the beach and they were followed by a bunch of other campers who were hoping to see what was going on, from a safe distance, of course.
The bear was contentedly sitting in the boat munching on ciscos. Some claim it even waved. It might have or it could have just been swatting flies. Only the bear would know for sure. However, one thing was certain, it was getting farther and farther away and was too far for anyone to swim out to it. And even if you did make it the boat, what could you do?
Two fellows in their late teens or early twenties had their own boat on the beach and they were up for a little fun and adventure, so they got their boat in the water and headed out saying. “We’ll see what we can do.’ They got close to the boat with the bear, slowly moved in until they managed to snag the bow rope with a paddle and then got a hold of it. Then they slowly towed the boat and the bear to a large island that no one was on. They let the boat drift to shore, and the bear, having finished off all the fish bait, grabbed the one fish that had been caught that morning and jumped to shore, without even getting its feet wet. Then he sat there and ate the catch of the day. All things considered he figured it was a good one, he had a big fish lunch and a pleasant boat ride.
The two fellows towed the boat back to the beach where they were met by a cheering crowd. They certainly had a great story they could tell their buddies. The three fishermen, who had temporarily had their boat highjacked, were relieved. The rest of the campers milled around for awhile and then got on with camping and enjoying the summer. How true this tale is I don’t know but I heard it several times in the bush, so I assume some of it is.
It also has a good lesson embedded in it. Whenever you bring your boat to shore and plan to leave it for a while, always make sure you tie the bow rope to something that will keep it there. You just never know what may or may not happen.