It is really quite discouraging to see the way that this trend has gone. It has meant less and less people actually stationed in the backcountry. I remember Brian Wallace, my first summer out in Blue Creek. He passed on a story…. we were standing in the yard at Blue Creek and looking on at Mount Simla and Raja. He said “I want you to remember this, I was told this by one of my mentors, (I think he might have said Mickey McGuire), when he was a young warden in the 60s on the North Boundary. He said that Mickey pointed up at hanging basin across the valley, and he said, “Next time I come through your district I want you to be able to tell me what’s in that hanging basin up there on the side of Raja, or up in Maclaren’s Pass or in the upper Blue Creek Valley or wherever we go. By the end of the summer you better be able to tell me what’s in your district, what you’re responsible for, and where the animals are and how they travel around the landscape, and the condition of the phone line, the campsites and the trails. You’re responsible for knowing and protecting your district.” That really stuck for me and everywhere I worked, I tried to get to know as intimately as I could the park and its resources, and that meant being out in the field as much as possible. It is discouraging to see and hear about the scaling back of backcountry programs. There have though been great strides in terms of resource and cultural research and monitoring programs in National Parks. Parks staff I believe are still just as committed as ever to the National Parks mandate.
SH: What are some of the more memorable events of your Warden Service career?
Bob: That’s a tough one Sue. There’s are so many turning points in your career. Some of them are really great memories or good events, or humourous events, and some of them are pretty sad events as well. Lots of stories from those times when I was into a new role, learning new skills, and having to quickly learn. My entire first summer in the Blue Creek horse district was one of those situations
The first day we rode into Willow Creek cabin with Brian and Vikki (Wallace), Jean Stoner and Ian Syme from Rock Lake was very memorable. We’d spent several days prepping for the first trip. There were groceries to get. We’d be working 24 days in the bush and have 4 days back out for days off. Brian was the North Boundary Supervisor and he trained Ian and I how to pack and throw the diamond. Each of us was assigned our string of horses. I had Gander, a tall black ex RCMP thoroughbred; Gar, a sturdy Morgan; and Help, another thoroughbred. Dennis Welsh, in his own highly effective way taught us about caring for our horses. It was made clear that if we neglected caring for our horses in any way we’d have to answer to Denny. The first big test was shoeing after practicing on frozen hooves under Denny’s instruction. Then it was into a stall with each of our horses to put on their shoes. Next up was loading horses into stock trucks for the trip out to Rock Lake. There was one unusual twist for our first trip of the season. We’d all ride in together from Rock Lake, Brian and Vicki, Ian, Jean and myself but we didn’t have to pack our pack horses. They’d be trailed in without saddles or pack boxes on. The pack gear would be flown into Willow Creek ahead of time by helicopter. Our trip was planned to coincide with the transplant of 26 bison from Elk Island into Willow Creek. We’d ride in and then the next day they’d start flying in these bison which were trucked from Elk Island to Rock Lake. We’d be at Willow Creek along with Dave Norcross to receive the bison. Each animal was tranquilized for the flight and transported in a metal crate at the end of a long line under the helicopter. They’d be released from the crate into the sturdy corral that had been built for them around a large pasture.
But before all that happened we made the ride from Rock Lake into Willow Creek cabin. It was a highly memorable trip. There was a good deal of nerves on the part of the horses and myself at the Rock Lake trailhead. We had 13 horses that had just returned from running free and kicking up their heels at the Ya Ha Tinda Ranch. It took awhile to get everything squared away, 5 of us on saddle horses and 8 pack horses with no saddles or packboxes. Once we got moving down the fire road from Rock Lake the horses were jostling and jittery. When we got to the turnoff into the narrow forest trail to Willow Creek from the Rock Lake fire road, some of the trailed horses horses broke away and broke free. Brian and Vicki had to tear off in front and try to get ahead of the herd and turn them back with Ian and Jean right behind them. Jean had already spent one summer as the Smoky warden. For Ian it was his first summer on horses like myself. There were shouted instructions for me to stay back at the trailhead turnoff to Willow Creek on the fire road. Anyhow, they disappeared and I was left there, and then I hear the stampeding, the yelling, and hooting and hollering, and the herd is coming back down the fire road towards me, and my job is to turn the herd down the trail and off the fire road. Amazingly it worked. My saddle horse was Gander, a high-strung thoroughbred. I got the clear impression that Gander really didn’t like the look of me, a definite greenhorn. As we waited at the turnoff he was dancing at the end of his halter shank. And then here come the horses. Brian and Vicki steered the lead ponies down the trail and I waved my one free arm and yelled to make sure the back horses didn’t blow past me back toward Rock Lake. It was a bit hair-raising. The last horse turned down the trail. Gander was more than ready to go. I had to quickly hop on and just managed to stay on. Gander was at a dead run almost before I got my leg over the saddle and we were off. After that it was an off and on headlong rush the 7 miles into Willow Creek.
With Brian and Vicki out front and on the narrow forest trail the horses slowed down into a walk for about two miles. It was just too tight for the horses to really get into too much trouble, but then as soon as we hit the open willow meadows they fanned out and it was a bit of a horse race for the next several miles. The horses were all North Boundary horses and they knew they were headed to Willow Creek, oats at the barn followed by grazing in the Willow Creek pasture. They were motivated. I didn’t realize that horses could buck while they’re galloping. But my horse tried and he also leapt a couple of creeks. I had a death grip on the saddle horn. Fortunately Gander was a smooth running thoroughbred but I still figured this might be my last day. But we all made it through the open corral gate and into the yard at Willow Creek. I had a welt on my butt from slapping the saddle because I had no riding technique. That was the start of a 24 day shift and my first backcountry horse district season of 1978. (End Section 2 – tape 21: 29).
Bob: The next day was the bison delivery which was quite an operation. The day after that it was time to go down the North Boundary trail to my District, Blue Creek. Brian figured I should try Gar that day as he was a bit calmer than Gander. I was hopeful. As we went down the slope to the creek leaving the cabin Gar made his first attempt to buck me off. I had my trusty death grip on the saddle horn and managed to stay on. (Turned out this would be a pet project of Gar’s. It just happened a few times but when the conditions were right he’d try to unload me. Once I ended up half out of the saddle and draped over his neck but I never ended up on the ground.)
We had a number of wrecks that day in between clearing trees off the trail and we had to repack a number of times. Eventually, after about three days the horses settled down and we settled down but I remember Brian had a headache so bad, from riding herd on the horses and us greenhorns, that he was popping aspirin and couldn’t wear his Stetson. We tested Brian’s patience but he stuck with us. That was the start of some of the most memorable seasons of my career and life. A real gift to be part of what was then a long, unbroken tradition of backcountry wardens.
SH: Good one. Hey Bob, I’m going to put you on spot. Do you have a memorable event from Pacific Rim because I don’t have any?
Bob: Ya. I remember, Rick Holmes and I… so we both got posted to Pacific Rim the same summer. We’d been at Lethbridge together at college but hadn’t seen each other since. I arrived and here’s Rick. He’s already been working for a week or two. Mac Elder was the Chief and he assigned Rick right away to Renfrew because Ian Pengelly, your Ian there, he had left and gone to Banff I think. So, Rick was sent down to become the Renfrew Warden, and I was tagged to be the Bamfield Warden to replace Bill Smith. Bill was going to be working for about a month, or a couple of months, and then he was going to hop in his sailboat and head off and tie up at False Creek and start his Masters at UBC.
Mac Elder set it up that Bill Smith would train both Rick and I to be West Coast Trail Wardens. So we headed off pretty early on in the season to spend ten days with Bill Smith. If you interview Bill Smith, I imagine he will remember training Rick and I as being fairly entertaining. He seemed to get a lot of enjoyment out of watching us transition from the mountains to the west coast. Rick was at that time, an accomplished high-end climber, both rock and ice, and a ski instructor with a plan to become a ACMG certified Mountain Guide. I had my five seasons in Jasper so was coming along. I felt comfortable in the backcountry in the mountains and I remember thinking if I can make it in the mountains, Pac Rim will be a piece of cake. I learned very quickly this would not be the case. Bill fitted us out with cork boots, with the big spikes, logger corks, and he sort of snickered when he saw our bad weather gear, that we brought with us from the mountains. The anoraks, and our wool knickers and gaiters and all the rest. We started out going every day out on the West Coast Trail in what ended up being one of the wettest Springs on record on the West Coast.
At that point the West Coast Trail was much more technically challenging than it is now. Lots of high risk, like you are walking on top of crisscrossed old growth logs 15 feet off the ground, serious mud and roots throughout and hauling yourself up or lowering yourself down steep slopes using old fish lines tied off on trees. There was essential learning about tides and what happens if you screw up going around a rocky headland at the wrong tide.
One of the things Bill showed us how to do… he said “There’s all these ladders. Us old hands, the way we go down these ladders is we face out and we go down with our cork boots and often walk down the ladders facing out”, which was not something I could do. It was tough enough getting down the ladders facing in with those spikes the way they stuck into the rungs on the ladder. But he encouraged us to try and develop that skill. It’s one thing to be climbing a rock face on belay and another thing to being at the top of three almost vertical stacked ladders one after another, with a creek ravine way down at the bottom and your trying to negotiate these ladders.
It just seemed to rain buckets every day. It was just horrendous that spring and some days were quite cold – serious mud and roots, ladders, scrambling around headlands and full on rain and cold. One day we left Carmanah Point light station hiking along the coastline, doing the shoreline route, and it was just …. the skies opened up. After a few hours we stopped for a break and some food under an overhang at the base of a rock face on the shoreline. The wind was whipping and Rick and I are still in our mountain gear, so our treated canvas anoraks. Thankfully we had wool knickers, but our anoraks were no match for the west coast rain. I was drenched to the skin. We are huddled there, and the rain is running down our necks. We’re chilled and shivering, and I look over Bill who is head to toe in heavy commercial fisherman grade Helly Hansen, completely rubberized coat, rain pants and he’s even got the Helly Hansen sou’wester with the big wide brim and it’s rubberized too. Bill looks totally content and every so often would give a smile and shake his head. I remember thinking this may be the closest I’ve come to being hypothermic and I’m on the temperate west coast not high up touring across some icefield in a blizzard. So Bill let me make all the mistakes I needed to make, to be humbled by the west coast and to learn a little humility that would keep me safe in years to come. I didn’t appreciate it so much at the time, but as time went on I really appreciated Bill’s approach to teaching us how to live and work and survive on the west coast. (Section 3 – Tape 08:55)
SH: Can you tell me any rescue/wildlife/enforcement stories that stick out in your memory?
Bob: Well thinking about this I remembered an enforcement one that was sort of wild west. For a couple of summers, Al Stendie was put in charge of law enforcement for the frontcountry of Jasper and I was posted to that as well, along with Pat Sheehan. On this particular night …. we had a great time. It wasn’t our favourite posting, high use law enforcement basically, dealing with drunken parties at Whistler and drunken parties in the bush up at Pyramid. It seemed like there was major parties going on all over the place a lot of those two summers. But it was really good learning experience. I learned a lot of good people skills. How to interact with people as an enforcement person. But on this one particular night Al, and Pat and I were all working night shift. We’d just had stopped for coffee, just finished coffee at the Tekarra, I think. I think that was one of Al’s favourite coffee spots. We’d just all gotten back in our vehicles and gone off in different directions. So we’d made a plan who was going to Pyramid, who was going to Whistler etc. and we get this call from Shirley Dorn on Dispatch that there’d just been an armed robbery at the Red Rooster. I say, “I just passed the Red Rooster”. I did see him. And this person had hopped in a vehicle and tore off. And what he did, he’d gone into the Red Rooster, grabbed a bottle of pop that he then broke on the counter and then threatened the cashier with the broken bottle and said, “Give me all your money”. And then tried to stuff it into a bag and then fled out of the Red Rooster with dollar bills flying and hopped in a car and then tore off. I think actually it was Pat … ya Pat was the first one who had spotted the vehicle. And Pat said “I think I can head him off. “ The person had gone around the corner and was tearing down the main drag towards the CN station and Pat pulled out in front of him in the intersection, right by the Whistle Stop there. So this guy was going at high speed, but cranked it over, and went in by the parking lot there by the Railroad Station and actually ended up on the tracks. Pat’s giving us a blow by blow and said, “ I’m going to hop my truck across the tracks and he’ll be blocked in … he can’t go anywhere”.
And then the next thing we hear …. and Al is responding by now, and I’m right behind Pat, I’m not too far away. Then we hear Pat say “He’s coming. I’m leaving the vehicle.” So this guy, he drove down the tracks and smashed into the side of Pat’s truck and then drove off the tracks, back into the parking lot and got on the main drag again. I’m just coming down from the Atha B down to that intersection and I see him make the turn as he’s tearing down the main drag. Meanwhile Shirley has been trying to raise somebody at the RCMP and still hasn’t been able to raise anyone. So I said, “I see him, I’m right behind him”. So we go tearing down the main drag and I said, “Shirley I can smell antifreeze, I don’t think he’s going to get very far. It’s like he’s probably losing antifreeze fluid. But I’m just passing the underpass past the Sawridge and he’s not going to get far before his vehicle packs it in.” He made the corner barely. I thought he was going to flip he took the corner so fast when he hit the highway, but he managed to keep his vehicle righted and then he just floored it.
I’m in my old warden truck. It’s almost dark at this point, and I can see sparks coming off of one of his wheels. So he’s blown a tire. So I’m updating Shirley …. “He’s losing antifreeze and now I can see sparks coming off of a tire and what’s up with the RCMP?” I’m just trying to keep him in sight but he just floored it and he’s actually pulling away from my old warden truck with one flat tire and leaking antifreeze. So I said, “I can keep him in view but he’s widening the distance here a little bit but with those sparks and stuff there’s no chance of me losing him.” Meanwhile he’s actually passing vehicles, and a couple of vehicles had to hit the ditch to avoid running into him when he was passing with vehicles oncoming, and finally Shirley came on, and said the RCMP are on their way. So I said “I’m just trying to keep him in sight. He’s this far away now but I can see him up there in the distance and I’m definitely not going to be overtaking him.”
Finally, his engine seized up so everything came to a halt. His engine is smoking, there’s steam and I just pulled up a hundred meters behind him. I’ve got my red and blues on of course this whole time and I’ve got my high beams on so he can’t see much looking back. But he just sat in his car and I’m worried. I didn’t know how he held up the Red Rooster, just heard it was an armed robbery, so I didn’t know if he was armed with a firearm or what. And of course my shot gun was behind, we use to have those gun carriers behind the seat of the truck, so I didn’t want to get out of my vehicle and take my eyes off this guy. So I just sat there and he just sat there too. We sat there for 10 minutes almost I guess before the RCMP came and they did a hard take down… “Get out show me your hands.” They were fully armed, revolvers drawn, and the rest and cuffed him. It turns out he’d stolen the car in the lower mainland and had serious mental health issues and he had pulled a couple of other robberies on the way.
That kind of situation hadn’t really been covered in our law enforcement training so it was just do the best you can in the situation you’re in, as usual for Wardens. Pat’s truck was pretty badly damaged. It was quite a rodeo.
SH: I’m glad I wasn’t Pat writing that one up for the vehicle… (Tape end 19: 56)
SH: That’s a great law enforcement story. Do you have any others – wildlife, rescue? I’m sure you must.
Bob: I have a Search And Rescue story from my first summer at Pacific Rim. I hadn’t been deployed to Bamfield and the West Coast Trail yet and I was working for a bit in the Long Beach Unit. Everything was new at the Rim and the park had a good training program to help get us ready for the busy summer. The training was timely as we had to use it early on that summer.
(Prior to going there my only experience of the ocean was seeing it once at Stanley Park in Vancouver when I was about 7. I remember my only impression at that time was the strong stench of decomposing seaweed.)
SH: Did Fuhrmann teach that?
Bob: No the surf guards taught that part.
