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

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