Bear Camp @ Chilko Lake (part 2)

After finishing my last day at Achievement First, I decided that after an intense 6.5 years of work what I really wanted most was to disappear into the wilderness to decompress and reflect on what was simultaneously an extraordinarily rewarding and extremely taxing period of my life. While I by no means consider myself a true outdoorsmen, camping trips before or after major life experiences have been a theme in my life. For example, before I started college, I did a Princeton program called Outdoor Action where I met some of my closest friends to this day. And I took another trip with Outward Bound post graduation and a NOLS trip after leaving Gap Inc. And so it seemed fitting to take an OARS trip to Bear Camp @ Chilko Lake with my good friend Max Koltuv after finishing up at AF. A 1 hour flight and 4 hour car ride north of Vancouver, British Columbia, Bear Camp @ Chilko Lake is truly a pristine wildnerness setting. But it was simultaneously the lap of luxury with a full time chef who cooked us gourmet meals all week, a full-bar, elevated tent cabins with beds, decks and patio furniture, hot showers & flushing toilets, wi-fi, and most importantly a staff of 4 fantastic hosts who did everything from bringing us warm tea to our tents each morning to leading us on an endless series of amazing hikes, horse back, kayak, fishing and biking adventures over the course of the week. So if you ever want to simultaneously be outdoors in the middle of nowhere and a five star hotel, this would be your place! Oh, and apropos of the name, we saw five black bears over the course of the week (and thankfully no grizzly bears). Big thanks to Max Koltuv for joining me on my adventure and to Marcee and Max's wife Eve for covering for us with our kids on the home front. While I doubt I'll ever have a good excuse to go back, it was just what the doctor ordered and definitely a memorable experience. In a prior post, I shared a link to a complete photo book but here are a few pics that are representative of the overall trip.  Also, here's a link to a great video of Bear Camp.