Hungry as bears

This post is about bears and food. We’ve been fantasizing about food a lot, but also on our minds have been thoughts of bears. We are often hungry because we spend a lot of time outside and the cold temperatures and constant activity keeps our metabolisms revved up. The bears are even more hungry because they’ve recently woken up from hibernation. We’ve been on the watch for bears; partly because we are in the midst of bear country right now and it’s fun to spot them, and partly so that they don’t catch us unawares and decide we would make a good meal.

In Cutter Cove we were rowing up a creek in our dinghy to do a bit of exploring, and a black bear stepped out of the thick woods onto shore and startled us. The photo captures our momentary consternation. Matt briefly forgot how to row, and it appears I forgot how to work a camera.

At Glendale Cove we watched a grizzly and her three year old cub grazing on shore. Another cruising couple who knows the area well informed us his name is Spike. We think Spike kept shooting hungry looks our way. Needless to say, none of our recent exercise has included walks on land.

On our journey so far we have been able to restock food supplies about every seven days. This will decrease in frequency as we get to more remote places. At home I use to grocery shop much more often, so I have had to adjust my planning out here. Also, not having refrigeration adds another challenge. We are here early season too so the small stores we've visited have been lean on fresh provisions, which is exactly what we are lacking. It’s been making me become a more creative chef. I do a lot less recipe following and a lot more improvising. No one on board has complained about my cooking... yet.

I’ve just recently started making bread. We find fresh baked bread an ultimate comfort food on some of the grey cold days we’ve had up here. From the food locker I unearthed a jar of some Trader Joe’s red pepper spread. Since we don’t have a toaster I pan fry the bread in olive oil. Adding the spread makes for a decent bruschetta. It doesn’t seem like much but out here it’s very delicious.

We haven’t started to fish or crab yet, but it’s on my list. Wecantu even hooked an old crab pot on her anchor the other morning. Maybe she is trying to tell us something!