Sample size counts
Border guards have a reputation; sometimes it’s deserved.
Apparently very minor border crossings in Canada are where that reputation is built and enhanced. There’s no need to go into the details, lets just say two middle–aged, obviously good looking, and harmless Californians do not need to be reamed for getting out of their vehicle when the border personnel don’t show up after a couple of minutes. Maybe we interrupted the morning donut break, I don’t know, but it was the second time (out of two) where crossing into our neighbor to the north was not particularly neighborly. So I had a bad impression of Canadian bureaucrats. That changed this afternoon. We had gone to Glacier National Park (Canada – not Waterton Lakes or the US Glacier – whole different place) and it turned out most of the hiking trails were closed. All of the trails were closed because a sow grizzly and her two cubs had been hanging out with the humans. So we went to the northern part of the park along Highway 1 to look for a place to take a short walk among the magnificent peaks. Got to the trailhead and what do you know? It’s a helispot , eh? Ended up having a nice chat with a very friendly young firefighter named Angus M. We did what firefighters do: we talked about some fires we had seen locally, talked about the weather and if lightning might come soon. After a while Angus’ boss drove up and he had to go back to work. As we were walking back to our truck Angus stopped us and handed me a Parks Canada fire patch. Made my day and rescued my opinion of Canadian bureaucracy. Angus- wherever you be, may you have fun fires, safe flights, and a long healthy career.