Coyote's Den 2001

Have you ever gone for a picnic and a disturbance was about you? We've had selfish people trying to ruin the fun but they were soon sent off annoyed, because they couldn't upset the summer merriment. Of course, those dreaded ants which would traverse across the blanket and bite; thousand's of little soldiers collecting more food to take back to their colony. The guests would jump up, some would scream and most would inspect the damage to their skin. Soon after, all would snatch up some food and save it; so as not to be contaminated. Once we boated along and found a beach along the Belcarra Park area with the waters of the Indian Arm. An inviting shore with clay crags and an easy bluff, which we climbed and found a nice place to set up the picnic. All the fixings for a splendid barbeque were set up and the food was cooking away, and everything that summer day was delicious. The children would play on the sand dunes, the adults would chatter away, and have a leisurely afternoon laying around on their beach chairs. Besides, who would want to exert any type of energy on a hot day. You just know when the picnic is done and the packing-up should resume. A flurry of activity is now upon the campsite, and hours of habitation is over. As we retraced our steps back to the boat we stumbled across a litter of four pups. Very cute and tawny-beige but wild looking, and probably could create a lot of trouble for us. Inadvertently we had beached the boat next to a coyote's den near the rocks, which the parent had carefully dug into the soft bluff. We found another path around and were successful in avoiding any further encounters with those beachcombers. They looked down at us and seemed so curious, but we were wary. Some were sunning, yelping for attention and some play-fighting. We caught a glimpse of the mother returning from a hunt as we were travelling along the Arm. They all greeted each other, she dropped the kill, they polished it off, and she went hunting for more.