I wasn’t that far from my next destination and in no need to hurry to pack up the camper. I decided the night before that I would leave the campground at first light and head into Schreiber and then come back and pack up.

There were a number of things going on here. One, there was a fire trail I wanted to walk, leading down to a lake that looked like it would be a prime place to spot a moose. Two, I’m out of regular coffee and there isn’t a K cup within a hundred miles of me. Three, while driving through Schreiber yesterday I spotted a combination motel office, Pizza Hut, KFC, and Robins Doughnuts (coffee stop) with a wifi sign in the window. Hey, this is the boonies of Ontario, they have to multi-task. And four, I wanted to visit a bear trap. Yup, I’m not making that up either.

So back up to yesterday again. Right along the highway through Schreiber, in a vacant lot, is a food truck. Chapman’s Fish and Chips, owned and operated by a Native American named, you guessed it, Chappy. Right near his truck was what I recognized to be a live bear trap. I knew right away what it was because it’s similar to ones the DNR uses in Minnesota. Basically it’s a big section of steel culvert mounted on a small trailer with heavy rebar fixed to one end and a rebar sliding trap door on the other.  No need to be subtle.  Bears will climb up onto anything and into anything if they think food will be the result.  When a bear gets caught, they just hitch him up to a truck and haul him back deep into the woods.

Chappy is a hard working guy, taking orders to go on his cell phone, hand cutting all his fries with the skin on, and of course cooking fish with grandma’s secret batter recipe. I watched him through the door on the end of his truck as I ate. The fish and chips did not disappoint.

When I finished I wanted to pay him a compliment so I chatted him up from the stairs up to his doorway. I asked him about the trap and he laughed and showed me the dents and claw scratches on his truck. He said to come back tomorrow early and I’d probably see one in a very grumpy frame of mind.

Fast forward back to today. When I arrived at Robin’s Doughnuts/KFC/Pizza Hut/motel office, I looked down the highway towards Chappy’s and could see the trap was already gone. When I asked the woman working the counter about the trap she said, “Yeah, they went by with him about a half hour ago, but if you go down this road over there, right across, I heard they had another one down there. If he’s there you can’t miss it, it’s right in a vacant lot back in that neighborhood.” I’m pretty sure I found the vacant lot she was talking about, but that trap was already gone as well.

Back to camp to pack up.