The Bear Mace Incident

JULY 14, 2006 - Castle Mountain Ski Resort

After a long 28-kilometre day of hiking we made it to Castle Mountain Ski Resort at 9:00 PM just in time to order pizza and a cold beer at the pub before it closed... awesome!

But after dinner I didn't notice that the safety of my bear mace had somehow slipped off and when I sat my pack down that evening before bed it accidentally went off and sprayed me in the face. For a split second I remained calm and turned to Christy and said "I just sprayed myself in the face with bear mace" and then the searing pain, blindness and choking set in and I was in full panic mode. Christy ran me to the washroom of the Resort hostel and immediately started to flush my eyes and face with cold water. The pain was excruciating, my face felt like it was on fire and I struggled to breathe. But all I could think of was that my GDT trek was over and I was disappointed to the point of tears.

After about an hour of cold water on my face, the burning began to subside and I could breathe and see again so I went into the shower to wash off any residual pepper spray. Meanwhile, Christy, Paolo, Bev and Pearl Murphy (owner of the Resort) cleaned up the rest of the bear mace spill and aired out the area. Everyone was coughing but they were all troopers and I have to say BIG THANKS to all of them, especially Christy who stayed by my side the entire time encouraging me and helping me wash and cool my eyes and face. After a couple of ibuprofen I was able to sleep most of the night and woke the next morning feeling only minor side effects of the incident (blurred vision and blisters on my face). Needless to say I will be much more careful with my bear mace from now on.

The next morning, Pearl (the Trail Angel) and her husband Darryl, invited us to their house for a full breakfast (bacon, eggs, fruit, muffins, coffee) and we shared many stories of adventure and a little bit of trail magic!