DAY 10 - FRIDAY
MAY 31ST:
Wake up 05:30 am, dress warmly in layers, eat a quick breakfast at 06:00 am
at the Haida Way and leave for Telegraph Cove at 06:20. That's how we
started the day on Friday. We had been looking forward to our
"Grizzly Bear Expedition" since making the reservation with
Howard Pattinson the owner/operator of "Tide Rip Nature Tours"
back in January.
After
parking our wagon in the lot at Telegraph Cove, we spotted someone
unloading items from the Tide Rip Tours truck and introduced ourselves to
what turned out to be a gentleman named Ben who had been out with Howard
several times before and would be acting as our "Mate" on our
trip.
Ben
was from just outside of Vancouver and loved coming over to the Island and
spending a day with Howard looking for the Grizzly Bears.
We
found Howard at his office house on the dock and as soon as another couple,
Ron and Helen from Holland arrived we all made our way to the end of the
pier and boarded Howard's converted water taxi, the "Kermode".
After
a quick safety session where Howard pointed out where the life jackets and
survival suits were located, he showed us, on a chart, the approximately 52
mile route we would travel to the area of Knight Inlet where the bears
would likely be found on that day.
Once
we had cleared Telegraph Cove, Howard steered us southeast on the Inside
Passage (Johnstone Strait) for a few miles where we turned left into Clio
Channel which after several more miles intersected with Knight Inlet where
we turned right and continued for many more miles to a cove which was where
we did indeed find several Grizzly Bears over a period of about 5 hours.
On
the way we were treated to some of the most beautiful scenery we had ever
seen. Gorgeous rocky shore lines rising through evergreen forests into
hills with snow covered mountains behind.. Waterfalls cascading down and
dropping into the water. Eagles and water birds swimming and soaring
everywhere we looked.
We
passed a Prawn boat and slowed down long enough to watch them pull a few of
their Prawn traps. We also passed the remote Tanaktuck First Nation Indian
village of Karlequeesan on Turnour Island and several small settlements
some having only two or three dwellings.
Howard
turned the helm over to Ben and spent most of the time pointing out the
various interesting sites and telling us stories of the history of the
areas we were passing.
The
"Kermode" was a very stable vessel, powered by a diesel engine
and cruised at about 25 mph which put us at our destination in just over 2
hours.
The
bears had been seen recently along the shore line of a cove on the south
side of Knight Inlet. This cove was shaped like a funnel, wide at the mouth
and narrowing down with a slight left bend. There was a stream
flowing into the cove from the narrow point and when we arrived, the tide
was almost low and the water got very shallow towards the point where the
cove narrowed with quite a bit of beach out of water and quite a few rocks
and sand bars exposed.
On
our right were the pilings from an old dilapidated pier and just passed
this Howard spotted our first Grizzly Bear feeding in the beautiful green
grass just above the beach. The bear was a beautiful cinnamon colored
female and took no notice of us. As we were still quite a distance
from her and she was partially out of site in the tall grass, we went up on
the roof of the cabin where we could get a better view with binoculars and
zoom lenses.
Howard
then spotted another bear quite far up in the narrow part of the cove just
outside of the tree line. This bear could only be viewed with binoculars
and stayed it's distance the whole time we were in the area.
About
15 minutes later, a brown male Grizzly came out of the woods and onto the
beach on the east side of the cove. The size of the
"Kermode" did not permit paddling, so Howard put on a survival
suite and went over the side to push us inch by inch across the shallow
water and around the rocks and sand bars to get a closer look at the new
bear.
By
this time it was after noon and Howard decided to take us out of the cove
and across the Inlet to a place where we might see some ancient Petroglyphs
on the shore line rocks. This also allowed him to put out a nice choice of
breads, meats, cheeses and vegetables for us to lunch on. He
explained that it required a lot of care to not open food in the area of
the bears so that they did not associate the smells of food with man.
After
lunch, we headed back into the cove, which, by then was much easier to
navigate as the tide had come in and there was a couple of feet of water
covering the narrower parts of the cove.
The
female was still out feeding in the grass and we were able to get much
closer to her. She continued to eat but evidently either heard of
smelled us and gradually she moved away and into the woods.
Howard
spotted a large male bear on the other side of the cove and gradually eased
our boat that way cautioning all of us to stay as quiet as possible.
By positioning the boat to take advantage of the wind which blew us closer
to the bear, we were able to appreciate the tremendous size of this large
dark brown male Grizzly. Once we were a couple of hundred feet from
shore, Howard, put the anchor over and we watched this bear for about 30
minutes.
Oblivious
to us the bear tired of eating and went for a swim. He then got back
on the beach and walked around drying himself. About this time a group of
Kayakers came out from "Knight Inlet Lodge" which is located on
the east shore of the cove just inside from Knight Inlet about 1/2 mile
from the area where the bears were. These people were being guided by
a naturalist and did not attempt to get real close to the bears so that
they did not disturb them.
At
about 3:00 o'clock, Howard decided that it was time to go home for the day.
On the way, we pulled into Lacoon Cove where we fueled up at The Marina
before continuing our voyage back to Telegraph Cove.
We
arrived back at the dock at about 5:30pm tired and happy after a long and
eventfull day on our "Grizzly Bear Expedition" Thanks
Howard Pattinson for a great day!!!