By day he’s a Tembec grader operator, but by night he’s a local best-selling author and he’s just self-published another book and this time he made it a family affair.

“Kootenay Bears” is the title of Colin Cartwright’s 107-page, soft-cover book illustrated by his daughter Leslie Cartwright whose pencil and charcoal sketches perfectly embody her father’s rustic stories and reflect his humour as well, no easy task when you’re dealing with creatures as powerful and unpredictable as Ursus Arctos Horribilis (Grizzly Bear).

Black bears too because growing up in the hamlet of Canal Flats and working more than 30 years as a grader and heavy equipment operator in the backcountry bush of the Rocky Mountains is the equivalent of going to university if you want to learn about bears of every stripe.

And Cartwright’s learning started at a very tender age because the rural residence of his Forest Ranger father was located literally in the middle of bear country which provided the real life anecdotes that Cartwright has spun in his light, but highly entertaining book.

Humour is one of the strongest themes throughout because Cartwright is one of those individuals that can seem to find a funny side to almost every situation, even ones potentially involving life and death. But in a recent interview at the Daily Townsman he makes clear that he didn’t set out in his book to blacken the already-black reputation of one of Mother Nature’s most ferocious creatures.

“It wasn’t meant to be a blood and guts thing. I don’t have any claw marks on myself,” he says about the 29 short chapters in the book, any of which could have resulted in some claw marks or worse. Like the one about Leo, the “official bear removal dog” that came to an untimely end.

Leo, a family pet just couldn’t help himself, when it came to bears. He was a brave dog (the chapter heading) but a foolish dog whose bravery came to an end in the thick brush behind the Cartwright family home after he chased a curious, but aggressive, black bear one time too many.

“I was getting dressed to go to Leo’s assistance when we heard a single loud yelp and then silence.” There were tears around the Cartwright homestead that day because they never saw Leo again.

But more often than not, Cartwright’s stories have a happy ending.

Like the tale he relates about the time when in the flush of youth he and a teenaged friend went hunting on Gibraltar Mountain east of Canal Flats and were stalked by a grizzly as they walked in darkness before reaching their campsite. With the bear no longer around and feeling hunger pangs from their nocturnal hike, the pair of youths decided to cook up a feed of bacon and eggs before turning in, leaving their unwashed dishes stacked neatly beside the fire.

It wasn’t long before an intruder, after licking the plates clean, decided to climb in the tent with them to see if there was more. It took a rifle shot into the dark night sky before their unwanted guest decided the tent wasn’t the right place to be and the lucky teens learned an important lesson.

Part of the charm of the short book is that it reveals youthful foibles like this that anyone who has ever been around bears or anyone short of common sense as a teen can easily relate to. It also gives a good insight into the lifestyle of rural B.C., a lifestyle not as sophisticated as the big city but one closer to nature and one with a much more realistic understanding of the Great Outdoors and the critters in it.

Despite the genuine danger that bears can present, Cartwright says he’d hate to see a world without them.

“To me, the wilderness would be a very poor place without bears.” Bears add “spice” to B.C.’s vast backcountry, he says. But at the same time, he’s realistic about encountering the big omnivores.

“Bear spray is the most easy to use. Mind you, you have to wait pretty while until the bear is slobbering on you before you use it,” Cartwright says in his typically laconic manner.

“Kootenay Bears,” is Cartwright’s second book on local lore and he says he has several more in the planning stage.

His first, “Empty on the Swan,” about the Whiteswan Lake road became something of a local best seller. Considering “Kootenay Bears” has the same accessible writing style and is about a much-maligned creature that we can all relate too, it won’t be surprising if it flies off local bookstore shelves too.