A rare sight at the Birchbank Golf Course north of Trail this week. A mom and two baby grizzly cubs were seen twice around the around 16th hole.
Jeff Papilion is the Director of Golf and Head Professional and says the ground crews first spotted them on Monday morning. “I believe it was Monday morning, our grounds crews noticed the two cubs playing around the green and they decided to play with the flag stick until they discovered there was a hole in the green where the flag stick goes and they dug themselves a pretty decent hole into the green.”
Papilion says the cubs had quite a bit of fun and created some extra work for the crew. “The grounds crew had to go and fix the 16th hole, yes. They dug a hole that was probably two feet by two feet and probably a good foot and a half deep when they were trying to figure out where the flag stick was supposed to be going.”
Papilion says the bears returned on Wednesday evening to the same spot on the course and have also been hanging around the area. “We just have lots of fruit trees down there. They’ve back and forth between Genelle and the Birchbank picnic area, the golf course, and over to Oasis. Covering quite a bit of ground but it’s a big mama silver back grizzly with two decent sized cubs.”
Papilion says they haven’t returned to the golf course since Wednesday evening. It was the first time a grizzly has been seen at Birchbank and he was surprised to find the bears this low.