Years ago, when we had gone alpine camping with him in the Coastal Mountains of British Columbia, and mounted Long Peak for a few days' stay, we could see the mountains of the Stein Valley directly across from our own peak, with its August-melting glacier directly below us feeding an azure-blue mountain lake to which we descended to scoop our water during our stay.

He has returned on his own many times to the Stein Valley to ascend its mountains, appreciate the vast beauty surrounding the area, and familiarize himself with all its natural attributes. He returned once again last week, this time with one of his canoes, along with camping equipment and research-oriented apparatuses because he meant to devote a week to a small research project on a selected fresh-water-stream system located there.

On the highway approaching the site, he noticed a number of black bears off on a bit of a meadow abreast of the highway. And while he was at his research site he noticed also an impressively large number of ants appearing everywhere. Small red ants and much larger black ant colonies appear to have proliferated in the area, it would seem.

He returned to the site where he had seen the black bears. Some of the large grizzled animals were still there, or likelier have made it a habit to return to the area. They were lying about on the grass, busy with something. And that something was lapping up ants; as creatures with an omnivorous appetite the ants must represent an especial treat, one the presence of an interloper didn't seem likely to distract them from.

Unless he might appear a rival for their gustatory feast, and foolishly approach them without the caution of enveloping himself in the safety of a truck cab.