The Day We Ran Into a Pack of Bighorn Sheep in Kootenay National Park

 

Lea and I drove—well I drove my Camaro since Lea could not drive a stick shift and the Camaro had a stick shift—from Banff National Park in Alberta to nearby Kootenay National Park in British Columbia. I think we must have had visions of hot springs dancing in our heads since we learned that the village of Radium Hot Springs got its name from the hot springs in its midst that regularly reached temperatures of 39 degrees (around 100 degrees Fahrenheit). Radium was at the entrance to the park. We, of course, dreamed of that kind of heat since we had been dealing with just above freezing temperatures for months in the beautiful Canadian Rockies.

Driving into Radium Hot Springs in September was a trip both literally and figuratively. Immediately we noticed bighorn sheep wandering along the roads of the town like pedestrians on a Friday evening going shopping spree in town centres or around town squares. According to local folklore the bighorn sheep showed up in town about the same time every year during hunting seasons because hunting was illegal in Radium and the bighorn sheep seemed to know that.

After getting a campsite and pitching our tent in the mid-morning hours Lea and I headed immediately to the hot springs where we sat for an hour or so watching the 39 degree temperature of the springs meet the 4 degree air of Radium producing that wonderful mist so redolent of hot springs meeting the colder air of the Rockies in the process. 

While sitting in the springs Lea and I planned out our next hike. We left the warmth of the springs and hiked into the mountains above the springs. We soon learned that we were the only humans hiking in the mountains this late in the season. As we hiked we saw a bighorn sheep. She or he skittishly looked at us and appeared to be deciding whether he should come at us at full gallop or not.  Thankfully, he or she didn’t.

We hiked on and soon we found ourselves amongst a flock of bighorn sheep to our left. The encounter with the earlier bighorn sheep had been a bit disconcerting. We talked about being in a situation all alone deep in the mountains of British Columbia and what would happen if we were attacked by that sheep with no one, no one, around to help us. Initially the encounter with the pack was even scarier than that of the single bighorn sheep. What would we do, we contemplated again, if we were attacked and injured with no one around to help us? We needn’t have worried. The bighorn pack ignored us. Strength in numbers? Who gives a crap about a couple members of that horrid human species?

We emerged from our hike several hours later and went back to the hot springs for more warm comfort and cleansing. Later—I don’t remember how long it was, a day or two perhaps—Lea and I took down our tent, loaded the car, and headed back toward Cranbrook to see an old fort and the train museum.