Last day

Midnight comes quickly, I looked out my window and the sky to the north looked kind of green but it was not very impressive. I’ve only seen the aurora in magazines and books so I decided to get up to make sure if it was making an appearance. It started slow with a few wisps of green and red zipping across the sky then it calmed down for a few minutes. I set up my tripod and camera and waited. It wasn’t like the photographs I have seen of this huge display of green sheets across the entire sky.

It took up maybe a third of the sky to the north but it was there. I made several exposures 20 – 30 seconds long making adjustments to enhance the images as best I could. Some of the aurora reminded me of the big search lights lighting up low level clouds for a grand opening, but there were no clouds to light up because I could see stars all around me.

I stayed up until 130 when it seemed to be fading for longer periods of time. I also heard whales or orcas swimming in the channel just down from me, I heard the blowing and taking in of air before they went back down under water. I went back to bed knowing that I can move going to see the aurora borealis down on my ‘bucket list’, down, but not off.

Next morning

I’m tired this morning from being up for a couple hours of aurora watching. As it turns out I was the only one to get up and photograph the aurora so I had to show them around.

The weather forecast was right, cloudy with occasional drizzle on the ride to Bella Bella. The flight was delayed an hour due to the weather. We sat in the ‘terminal’, a single room in the single room airport waiting for the plane to arrive. I was amazed; no removing of shoes, no X-rays, no luggage check; just give them the tickets and you are good to go. Oh for the good old days of plane travel. This plane was a bit larger; two seats per row on one side and one seat on the other. I made it back to Vancouver with everything being grayer due to the start of the cloudy skies for the duration of my time there. I already told you about my touring at the beginning of my story so all I can say is I really like Vancouver and would like to see it again.

The entire time we were traveling back and forth in the GBR between the Lodge and destinations I only saw two other boats. I only saw one other group of people during the trip, the people at the other bear stand on Gribbell Island. We are truly at a remote place on earth in the Great Bear Rainforest.

Return
I made the trip back to NM with no real excitement, just the way I like it.

I had a great time seeing and experiencing Vancouver again and the Great Bear Rainforest in particular. The people at the Spirit Bear Lodge are great hosts and hostesses; I can’t recommend them highly enough. I didn’t see a Spirit Bear but somehow that doesn’t really matter, I saw and experienced more things while I was there than I imagined the entire 6 months of planning for the trip.

The experience of being in such a remote place on this earth, seeing it thriving and the people working to care for it gives me the hope that when I come back again the Great Bear Rainforest will still be here to explore and enjoy. I believe I will make another trip sometime to see it.

I hope you enjoyed my story.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark

Canoona River, Khutze Inlet

It turns out that last night the aurora borealis made an appearance above us. Several of the cooks came in asking if we had seen it. We all gritted our teeth and said no, we were busy sleeping, including me.


Doug Neasloss is our guide today. Doug is one of the elders of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais, he is one of the founders of the Spirit Bear Lodge, a member of the Spirit Bear Research Foundation and an accomplished photographer. I really enjoyed talking with him learning all the things that are going on in the GBR and the implications of all the outside forces pushing against it.

Canoona River

Today the ride to the Canoona River is clear, no fog and very few clouds. The weather forecast for the next day is for clouds to move in and rain to follow in a few days. We have been very fortunate with the weather this week. Normally October experiences 25 days of clouds with almost that many days with rain. The rainforest area averages over 118” of rain a year, almost 10’! Here in NM we have been in a drought and haven’t seen 8” in a year for the past couple of years.

We hike along the river and stop for at least 45 minutes to over an hour in three different spots to watch for bears. No bears are seen; several of us have been watching the river and haven’t seen any salmon either. I think the 2012 salmon run has finished, and the bears have moved to other sources of food.

I had to include the 'tourist' photo of me to show that I was actually at the Great Bear Rainforest.  I'm in my rain jacket although I didn't need it.

This afternoon we’ll move over to the Khutze Inlet looking for grizzlies. Once we arrive we see a mother and cub digging the estuary looking for roots. Mom can tell something has changed with our arrival but we stay low and quiet so mom goes back to digging.  We give her a wide berth and walk up along the river.

Doug tells us that several hundred years ago this area used to have a village of several thousand inhabitants. There are several orchards of crabapple trees farther upstream along with remnants of a village. The valley is spectacular with waterfalls and snow topped mountains.

The tide moves quickly in this area, rising several inches every few minutes, overall tide levels vary up to 10’ between low and high tide. What had been a clear path 15 minutes ago we have to bypass because the water level has risen above the path.

On our way back we see more humpback whales swimming.

Tonight we will celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada, so this year I will get to celebrate Thanksgiving twice. When I was in Vancouver I saw signs advertising a Thanksgiving buffet at the hotel but thought “They sure are advertising Thanksgiving early here. It’s about as bad as the Americans advertising for Christmas before Halloween”. Then I noticed that Thanksgiving is on Oct 8th. One must pay attention.

We ate with the elders of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais nation, we heard stories of where they came from and how the village of Klemtu is progressing and growing. They had many nice things to say about Tim, the manager of the Spirit Bear Lodge. They really love him and the work he is doing with the Lodge.

After dinner I packed up most of my stuff. I have to leave out my camera and tripod, I’m getting up at midnight to see the aurora, if it’s there.

Thank you for stopping by,
Mark 

Gribbell Island

A number of different First Nations people live in the GBR. The Spirit Bear Lodge is owned by the Kitasoo/Xai’xais people primarily living in Klemtu. These two groups of First Nations people used to be separate until they were visited by Europeans. All First Nations people were devastated by the diseases the Europeans brought, because they had no immunity to the diseases. There was between 70% and 90% mortality in almost all instances. In order to survive the Kitasoo/Xai’xais people had to merge and subsequently have grown. Gribbell Island has much the same story to tell but is owned by the Gitga’at people. Fortunately all the groups get along and share their land for us to have opportunities to see the Spirit Bear.

Gribbell Island is a 2 ½ hour trip by boat, almost 60 miles north of Klemtu. Our skipper, Charley, told us several stories of when he was growing up in Klemtu and how the elder’s word is law. It’s sounds harsh by today’s standards but they do not seem to have any discipline problems. We went in and out of fog along the way but by the time we got to our destination the skies had cleared. A 20 minute walk into the forest brought us to the bear stands, our destination for the day. There were nine of us today counting our guide. By 10:00 we were all set up waiting for bears to show. Some of us stayed down at ground level, others went up top.  I set up along the side of the stand with a good view of the stream in either direction.

This is a stream, much quieter than the rivers we were along on the preceding few days. We talked with one of the Watchmen, a local First Nations person that patrols the area. He’d seen bears in the area but not a lot of activity. By the end of the day I noted that there were very few salmon running up the stream any more, probably the end of the season.  Note how wide the stream is around us, maybe 25' - 30' across at this point, think about that when you see images of the bears.

We all took lots of photos of the area; the stream, forest, mountains and whatever else caught our attention then settled in waiting for a bear to show.

I started wandering around, not very far just in case a bear showed, when I saw people on the other bear stand jumping up and pointing cameras away from us further upstream, a black bear! I quickly walked back to our stand and whispered “bear” everybody at our stand jumped up with cameras looking in the same direction for a black bear. She wandered down stream between the two stands looking for something to eat but didn’t seem to have much luck then wandered off into the forest again. We all got a couple photos then settled in for the next bear sighting.

I wasn’t impatient, the last couple days of bear watching have taught me that, but I didn’t just want to sit around waiting doing nothing. I dug out my macro lens and started photographing the forest on a different scale.



Hobbit hat?



It’s a challenge changing the scale of what one wants to photograph. All this time I am looking for creatures two to three times my size at a great distance. Now I am looking for subjects anywhere from a couple of inches to a couple of feet tall. I shot a quite a few subjects, some came out, some not, but I had fun doing it.

Another black bear came out an hour or two later, again we all jumped up to photograph her. I say her because female bears are somewhat smaller and don’t seem to be bothered by humans showing up. We were told the males are larger and stay farther upstream away from human contact. She wandered across the stream and disappeared into the forest again.



Pine martin



In the mean time a pine martin showed up at our stand. Everyone jumped up and was shooting photos as it went back and forth, up, down and all around. After it left our stand we saw the people at the other stand jump up and around photographing the same pine marten. That must have been the most photographed pine marten ever. Pine martens are in the same family as mink, otter, badger and weasel.

As the afternoon wore on everyone really relaxed, the warm sun and babbling stream was really working its magic. Our guide told us we have to leave at 315, bear or no bear. We were all still hoping for a bear to make an appearance close to us. 20 minutes before we had (were supposed) to leave a black bear showed up next to our stand. She was really looking for something to eat.

Fortunately salmon, not humans was still on the menu. She walked back and forth across the stream not more than 100’ from our location looking and looking for food. Finally when she was immediately across the stream from our stand she found a salmon.

She took it to the opposite shore and promptly ate it right there. Shutters were clicking away like mad. Our guide kept telling us we have to leave; we only stayed about an extra 10 minutes because the bear had finished dinner and wandered back into the forest across from us.

There were lots of smiles on the way back to the boat. On the way back to the Lodge we saw another four humpback whales swimming in the channel.

We feasted on boiled shrimp in a spicy sauce along with salmon and pasta as appetizers.  We followed that with halibut, new potatoes, white beans in a sauce with peach kuchen and ice cream for dessert.  I know there was more on the menu, I just can't remember it all.

Jason, our guide for the day, who is studying wolves in school, gave a presentation on the coastal wolves living in this area. Over the past few days I have seen wolf tracks, but no wolves.

Tim met with us again to plan out tomorrow’s itinerary; the Canoona River and the Khutze inlet, black and grizzly bear territory respectively.

I went for a short walk in town. It is very quiet, and mostly dark because of the lack of streetlights. I could easily see the Milky Way even in the center of town. There is a fair bit of activity in the homes with people coming and going. Everybody it seems owns a dog, or two, or three. These are not the little wimpy dogs someone can carry in their purse. These are DOGS, the kind a small child could ride like a horse. The kind that can go through 50lb bags of dog food if you’re not paying attention.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark

Mussel Inlet

Mussel inlet was named by one of George Vancouver’s officers. During their exploration in the 1790’s they had found mussels at this inlet, ate them and got terribly sick with one of Vancouver’s men dying. No mussels for me, I’m just here to see grizzlies.

The day starts off clear overhead but cloudy/foggy at sea level. We kept going between clear and foggy conditions up until we arrived at the inlet. It made for some great photography.

There are very few boats in this part of the GBR. We see an occasional fishing boat but not much else. My guess is that this part of the GBR is so remote and being early October, the end of the tourist season, are the main reasons for the lack of traffic.

We jumped into a zodiac for the ride to shore. I made sure to bring my tripod this time as we were not doing any bushwhacking. As soon as we arrived we walked less than 200’ to see grizzlies; a mom and her two cubs were fishing in the river and dining on salmon like we weren’t even there.

 At the same time a second pair of grizzlies was further up along the shore just doing whatever grizzlies do. The family in the river was not more than a couple hundred feet from us.

We stayed at Mussel inlet from about 930 AM to 400PM wandering about a mile up and down the river almost always seeing grizzlies.

Towards the end of the day we saw a mom and cub come over to our side of the river looking for a spot to dig up roots.

Once our guide spotted them rooting he motioned for us to come out from the forest to watch. We got just a little too close, mom was huffing and giving other indications that we were too close for her comfort. We backed off about 10 feet, just under the cover of the trees and then she was okay with us.

They were digging around and eating for 20 minutes or so before they decided they had enough and went back to the other side of the river. In all we probably saw 12 different grizzlies that day; at play, eating or just roaming around.

On the way out we came across humpback whales just swimming along minding their own business.

We returned to the lodge for another wonderful meal with appetizers and dessert. One could get spoiled living like this. Tim met with us again and planned out our next day; Gribbell Island and a bear stand to find black and spirit bears.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark

On to the Great Bear



Over the Great Bear Rainforest



The Spirit Bear Lodge tour package with includes the flight from Vancouver to Bella Bella, the boat ride from Bella Bella to the Shearwater Resort for an overnight stay, then the boat ride to the Spirit Bear Lodge. The plane was just a little puddle jumper, 20 or so seats run by Pacific Coastal Airlines. There is no middle seat on this plane, all the seats are both aisle AND window seats! There is no overhead storage for your carry-on, in fact there is no room to stand up straight unless you are shorter than about 5’. There is no beverage service. The other things missing are; X-ray of your carry-ons, removing of the shoes and putting all your 3 oz liquids into a small plastic bag for inspection. We did have a larger plane on the return trip. The flight is about an hour and a half with one stop along the way flying over southern parts of the GBR.



Our plane



Bella Bella is a town of about 1,400 mainly survives on fishing, forestry and transportation being on the Inside Passage to Alaska. The Shearwater resort is about a 20 minute boat ride from Bella Bella. The Shearwater primarily takes in people going fishing and Eco-tourism. Being in the GBR it is a launching point for all kinds of activities. It has basic bed, refrigerator, shared bath and television.



Water taxi



There are four of us that are going to the Spirit Bear for the same reason, to see wildlife, bears in particular. We are all from the States; Washington, California and New Mexico. Lots of travel stories went back and forth, not too many from my side but lots from the other world travelers. Morning came quick the next day, one minute the sky was lightening slowly, the next minute the sun was blasting all of us, like a slap on the face. We all commented on the speed of the sunrise.



View from Shearwater





After breakfast we waited on the dock for our 90 minute boat ride to the Spirit Bear Lodge. The water taxis are the primary mode of transportation. They are made of aluminum and carry anywhere from 6 – 16 people; most of it enclosed with the aft being open for those that want to breathe the brisk salt air and take lots of photos. I was out there quite often during my stay. For the most part the trip to Spirit Bear Lodge is smooth, we are going between islands almost all the time. When we were exposed to the open waters of the Pacific the water had a bit of chop but nothing to worry about.



Taxi ride to the Lodge



The Spirit Bear Lodge is in the village of Klemtu in the center of the Great Bear Rainforest. It is located about 330 miles north of Vancouver and 370 miles south of Juneau, AK. Klemtu has a population of just short of 500 with most of the people making a living salmon farming, logging, transportation because it is also on the inside passage, or tourism for people like us that want to see the GBR. We found out later that this was their best year for tourism with over 180 guests. The lodge has 12 rooms with private baths, a small kitchenette and large windows overlooking a natural channel where the boats, whales and orcas come and go. There is no television set, which I didn’t notice until the second day of my stay. For those of you people that need to be connected to the outside world, there is internet and cell phone access. The tour package includes everything; transportation to and from the Lodge, daily trips to the different bear viewing areas, a daily hot breakfast, picnic style lunch, and chef prepared dinner. If you are hungry at any time it is your own fault. After dinner the guides talk about their area of expertise and Tim, the Lodge manager, meets with us to discuss what we saw that day and makes plans for us on where we will go the next day and what we can expect to see. The only things we need to bring are a sense of adventure, patience and lots of memory cards for our cameras. More on patience later (be patient).



Wellies




After arriving we met the people that will be taking care of us, signed a waiver about being out in the wild. We found the room where the rain jackets, pants and Wellies are stored, found the ones that fit, had lunch and were on our way to see the GBR.



Spirit Bear Lodge water taxis



Each day we got on one of the water taxis for the 90 minute ride to one of the inlets to see grizzly or black bears. A 90 minute ride is anywhere from 30 – 40 miles so we were covering a lot of area. It turns out that grizzly bears are concentrated on the mainland of Canada while black bears are concentrated on the islands although grizzlies are crossing channels to the islands. Black and grizzly bears do not necessarily get along with grizzlies taking over upon arrival. The main reason for the concentration of bears is the abundance of salmon that are born and return to the area to start the life cycle over again. The other reason I’m certain bears live in this area is the lack of humans and the respect the local people give the bears by not hunting or harassing them.

Salmon are essential to the entire food chain in the GBR. They feed orcas, bears, wolves, eagles, smaller birds, numerous other animals, insects and the forest itself. Some animals take their catch into the forest to eat and whatever they leave behind gets eaten by the smaller animals or breaks down and fertilizes the forest. Birds scavenge the leftovers along the water and other sea life feeds on the leftovers the birds miss.

Salmon farming is quite big here. There are some problems with salmon farming causing wild salmon to catch sea lice. In speaking with several of the local people and guides it takes a bit more management to keep the lice problem under control. Over logging is another problem. It breaks down the natural watershed by removing roots and other plants that hold the soil in place during the rains. They also remove shade the trees provide over the streambeds keeping the water cool for the salmon and cover for the other animals of the forest. Both farming and logging can be conducted; we just have to be smarter about doing it.

Our first stop is the Korich estuary, black bear territory. The 90 minute ride is very scenic, endless mountains, trees and water. I watch the sonar the skipper uses and see that the water is as deep as the mountains are high, 500 – 1000’ tall mountains and 500 – 1000’ deep water. As we get closer to the mainland we see snow on the tops of the mountains. Upon arrival we jump off the boat are instructed by our guide to walk slowly and quietly to our destination somewhere upriver. Our guide has a can of bear spray in case we come across a bear that has its eye on us but we are assured that none of the guides has ever used the bear spray in the 8 years of operation of the lodge. “Salmon are on the menu, not humans”. We follow a trail along the river, it is used by humans to see bears but it is also a trail used by bears to get from one part of the forest to another, although they are so big they certainly can make their own way through the forest, and who’s to stop them. The ground here is covered with moss, small plants and tree roots. The ground is softer than any plush carpet I have ever walked on. The scent of the pine and cedar is fresh. We see salmon swimming up river, not a solid wall of salmon, which can happen at the peak of the salmon run, but a continuous stream of a half dozen at any one time. You can see fins of the salmon as they are swimming up river in the video, below, but no bears.  Here is where patience comes in. Bears do not come out on command just because we have arrived. They live on their own schedule; they come to eat when they are hungry. We found comfortable places to sit amongst the trees and plant life to wait and watch for bears. The forest is not quiet here, river is continuously rushing by with salmon running up and birds flying back and forth picking over the food along the edges of the river. I am looking all over; from the river to the bark of the trees, the moss on the trees, the small, medium and large plant life and the shadows cast from all this on to other plant life and the river. I am so happy to be here, this is where I have been planning and wanting to be over the past 6 months. I stop every few minutes to look at the others to see if they see any bear activity before I go back to looking at all this wildlife. I shot many images during my time along the river. We stayed there for over an hour watching for bears but none came. We made our way back to the boat to try at the Bolin inlet.

The Bolin river is quite deep with no real trails to follow so we bushwhacked our way up river. The going was slow, the forest is very dense and the ground very soft. You want to go slow because if you try to walk fast and your Wellie sinks several inches into the mud you WILL pull your foot out of your Wellie.  You do not want to be standing in the middle of the forest with one foot in a Wellie and the other with just a sock!  None of us did that on this trip. I almost did it until I felt my foot moving and the boot staying put in the mud. It’s not easy bushwhacking when one has a backpack filled with camera equipment. I kept moving it from front to back depending on whether I was climbing over logs or crawling under logs. We made our way back down to the river, saw more salmon, but after another 45 minutes or so still no bears. We followed along the edges of the river to get back to the boat. I was quite nervous walking along a river with lots of rocks wearing thick rubber boots and carrying an expensive camera, especially on the first day of the trip. I was planning on how I would try to save the camera if I went in. I had visions of an arm sticking up out of the river holding a camera with the rest of my body being underwater. My other concern was to make sure I did not step into 18” deep water wearing 17” tall Wellies… think about it…



Reflections of waves on the underwater stones from water drops



We were not successful in finding any bears the first half day out. We were not disappointed, there is so much more to see!  It can only get better!

We got back to the lodge to get back into our regular clothing and have some appetizers, beer and/or wine and a wonderful meal including curried turkey, rice, zucchini, cole slaw, cheeses and guacamole, all this followed by dessert. Tomorrow we are going to Mussel inlet to see grizzly bears.

It took a while to fall asleep, partly due to the excitement of the trip, but mainly because it’s soooo quiet. No cars, sirens, motorcycles going by my window and no city lights lighting up my room.

There are 14 people at the Lodge at this time. There are couples from Italy, Netherlands, England and the balance from the US and Canada.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark

Vancouver part II

On my other full day in Vancouver (on my return trip) I took the city bus to the University of British Columbia to see the Museum of Anthropology. Be sure to go there if you have the opportunity. They have a lot of items from the First Nations peoples, Canada’s version of our Native Americans. I am astounded at the carving they did; the family (totem) poles are amazing! They also carved out their own boats from cedar trees. The people that lived in this area did not have to travel or live as hunter/gatherers because they could grow what they needed and live off the salmon that came up the rivers every year. Because everything was right there they were able to build permanent houses and villages. The family poles erected outside their homes told stories about the family that lived there.  They consist mainly of animal carvings; ravens, bears, wolves, orcas and frogs among others. The image above shows a replica of Haida Gwaii buildings.  

The First Nation's people are also know for their bentwood boxes.  The following photos are of a bentwood box which consists a single piece of cedar whach were steamed and bent into a box shape.  The one seen here actually used for cooking was water tight.  It's approximately 12" on a side by 15" tall.

The image of the inside of the box shows how the sides are laced together using cedar lacing.

The museum has a huge collection of almost anything you can think of (think of what you saved in your attic or basement (just the good stuff)). I was there for three hours and barely touched on what they had to see.

 

I stopped at Granville Island to see the Public Market, endless food; fruits, vegetables, cheeses, meats, seafood, flowers and all kinds of other items. It is very colorful, lively and the bakery is tasty! I had blueberries several times while in Vancouver and they have more flavor that any I can remember. There are also many galleries and general tourist shops in the area.

I rode through Chinatown and Gastown, the original part of Vancouver, before I stopped at a local pub for a sandwich. I stayed long enough to miss the final trolley that would have taken me back to the hotel so I walked about a half hour across downtown back to my room. That night I made my ritualistic walk down to the bay to watch my last sunset before my flight back home.

Bear photos are coming, soon.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark