Great Bear Rainforest Trip (part 1 of many)

Early this year I decided to make my trip to the Great Bear Rainforest, GBR. My decision was driven by a few different circumstances. First I saw the August 2011 National Geographic article ‘Land of the Spirit Bear’. This reminded me that three years ago I saw various tours in the GBR but at that time I was more interested in doing a kayaking trip from Vancouver Island. (You can see entries about my kayaking trip on this blog dated August 26, 2009 – Sept 23, 2009.) Second, I have been following the Dogwood Initiative’s ‘No Tankers: Our Coast Our Decision’ campaign. Briefly, Enbridge Inc. wants to run two oil pipelines from Alberta through British Columbia, specifically through the Great Bear Rainforest, to the coast so oilsands crude can be shipped to China and Asia. (Think Exxon Valdez spill implications) The repercussions of a spill in the GBR are much worse because everything is close, in very narrow channels, as some of my photos will show, so access will be limited to clean any spill. Go to http://dogwoodinitiative.org/ to learn more. I’m afraid of what will happen to this area when a spill occurs if the Canadian federal government continues to push through the pipeline. Okay I’m off my soapbox.


Canadian Pacific Coast



I hope to entertain you, show a lot of photos of my trip and educate you just a little.



Looking at the Canadian Pacific Coast map you can see the pointer for the village of Klemtu, my destination in the GBR.

The Great Bear Rainforest is one of the largest intact temperate rainforests in the world. It runs between Vancouver British Columbia and SE Alaska, covering 27,000 square miles, roughly half the size of the state of Wisconsin.  The map below shows the approximate area of the Great Bear Rainforest.

Area of the Great Bear Rainforest

My real hope is to photograph a Spirit Bear, or Kermode bear. Spirit Bears are actually black bears where a recessive trait produces a white bear in about 2 - 4% of the black bear population within the GBR. Spirit Bears do not live anywhere else in the world. It is believed that this trait goes back to the ice age where having a white coat was a form a camouflage. In addition to the Spirit Bears I hope to see black and grizzly bears, wolves, eagles, orcas, humpback whales and many other animals.



With this trip in mind I bought a Canon DSLR camera to record my trip. I also have a point and shoot camera but it is not capable of making the long range shots I will need to see bears at great distances. This DSLR is also capable of recording HD video which really wowed me when I watched some of the video I shot when hiking in the Pecos Wilderness in NM. To enhance the capability of my camera I rented a 70 – 200mm zoom lens from BorrowLenses. The cost to rent the lens and converter for a two week period is about 10% of the cost of buying the lens. You can find them on the web at http://www.borrowlenses.com I highly recommend their service.

I will include some of my photos and possibly video of my trip along with commentary in this blog. Given the fact that I shot over 600 images in the GBR and another 100+ while in Vancouver it may take me a while to get things put together.

I actual started planning in January of 2012. I researched five different companies that provide tours of the GBR. Four of them are boat based, you ride a boat from one location to the next, get off to visit different locations during the day and retire back to the boat at night. The boat trips sounded like it would be fun if you went as a couple sharing a berth but I went by myself. I was also afraid I would not be able to fit all my stuff into the area that a boat would provide. Instead I chose a lodge based tour, Spirit Bear Lodge in Klemtu. www.spiritbear.com I live in NM, there is very little water here so I do not own rain pants, a heavy rain coat or Wellies, knee-high rubber boots, essential for going through the forest looking for wildlife. If I took a boat based trip I would have to supply my own rain gear. The Spirit Bear Lodge supplied all the necessary rain gear so that was one less thing to buy, pack and carry with me.

I had to make my reservations in March; there were very few open spots on any of the five companies I contacted. Since I was not using a travel agent I also had to make plane reservations and hotel reservations while I would be in Vancouver. I got the last opening at the Spirit Bear Lodge, Oct 4 – 9. I found out while on my trip that the 9th is the last day of their tourist season. I had been in Vancouver in ’09 had a great time and decided to spend an extra day there both on the way to GBR and on the way back home.

English Bay, Vancouver, British Columbia

It took a long time for me to get really excited about the trip considering I made reservations already in March. I figured if I was already excited in March I would be a basket case by the time I would be ready to leave in October. I did drag my feet on making the reservations for rooms in Vancouver. I have to thank my friend Esther for keeping after me to get the hotel reservations made or “I would end up sleeping in Stanley Park”, downtown Vancouver.

I must add a note here. Sue, my wife is not able to go with me. Her health is not very good, and she would not be able to do the things required to go on this trip. My mind went back and forth many times whether to go or not. She finally said to just GO! She would be okay while I was gone. I want thank her for being so supportive of me going on this trip.

Thank you for stopping by,
Mark