All posts by Lodge Guide

Curious visitors

Sea lions visitingPicnic lunches on your day with the whales and other abundant marine life are most often eaten in the boat while drifting. It is sort of like the movie “Feed of Dreams” in that the drifting means that all is quite and most mammals are curious and will come to investigate something that is different.  The different being a boat without a motor running which allows a much closer approach from these Steller sealions.

 

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Grizzly Bears Share

 Late fall and another mother grizzly this time with a second year cub. The cub still wanting to share mother’s catch even though it is time for it to be doing it’s own fishing. It will not likely get another year of lessons on how to survive. These bears were not blonde in the spring but were definitely much lighter in colour. The change, we have noticed, seems to occur when their diet changes from grass, roots and berries to salmon.

 

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Spring grizzly bears

Early June with a mother and cub on the beach.  The cub is still too small to turn over rocks and is dependent on mother’s milk for nourishment. Both mother and cub are very light coloured tending toward blonde. This colour will change as the season progresses and they have access to salmon. At this age the cub remains close to mother partly in fear of other bears but more to learn how to survive.

 

Grizzly Bear Lodge Meals 3 of 3

Dinner table set

The table is set with salads, fresh homemade bread and wine. Dinning at Grizzly Bear Lodge is the good food that the guests rave about and guests and staff’s lively conversations. Remember “what happens in the boat stay in the boat unless the guest open the topic”. The eating part of dinner may be completed in an hour but the conversation around the table may last for several hours.

Grizzly Bear Lodge Meals 2 of 3

dock lunch boat lunchtrapper ricks lunch spot

The picnic lunches are popular with the guests. The basics start with: cheese, crackers, fresh vegetables (carrots, peas, tomatoes), drinks, plus a dessert of cake, loaf, squares and the ever popular LARGE bag of cookies. Then add any of the following: homemade soup or chili, wraps, sausage rolls, hard boiled eggs, smoked salmon and bagels, “Dagwood” style sandwiches (check the internet), BBQ chicken and the list is long enough so that you will not have the same lunch twice on your visit. What changes is the location of your lunch: while grizzly bear watching it is on a float in Knight Inlet’s Glendale Cove; whale watching it is drifting in a boat somewhere in the area of Johnstone Strait; and if visiting Trapper Risk on a remote BC  river it will likely be on the deck of his cabin with a view of the river.
The champagne was brought from France (a tradition with the guests who take a bottle on all their vacations to drink in a memorable location). This picture is missing another table of food.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grizzly Bear Lodge Meals 1 of 3

breakfast at Grizzly Bear Lodge

Guides at Grizzly Bear Lodge are up a half-hour before we call the guests for breakfast. Guests are call at 7:00 in the spring and 6:30 after August 24th (however some days guests are up before guides allot depends on “jet lag”). Our most important job is coffee and hot water for tea. The table is set the night before and we put out the “frig food”. The table contains home made muffins and bread, cereals both cold and hot (in a package), fruit (fresh and in bowels to be added to cereal), yogurt, and juices. Some guests take a muffin or fruit for a morning snack even though each boat has a great picnic lunch….

Grizzly bear watching? 2 of 2

Grizzly bear family fising Knight Inlet

The problem the grizzly is yesterday’s post has is the four bears in today’s. No bear except a large male wants to confront a mother grizzly bear with two cubs. And this was a five-year-old male who wanted time to think about its decision. Also in the photo is another large female but without cubs (head lower right corner). After about five minutes of pondering he entered the river and did some fishing but kept his distance from the other bears.

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Grizzly bear watching river

This grizzly came to a point about 8 meters (26 feet) from the base of the viewing platform that overlooks the spawning channel on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River. The platform, which we use after August 24th, provides a view of the man-made spawning channel containing salmon. This is a favourite fishing location for the grizzlies on the lodge’s grizzly bear watching tours. That creates the problem for this bear as will be seen in tomorrow’s post….

Sooty shearwater epic migration

Sooty sheerwater

Always trying for an interesting photo while on a wildlife tour and this time it worked. The whale’s tail gets the attention but I wanted to focus on the sooty shearwater. The heading of an article I found reads “Longest Animal Migration Measured, Bird Flies 40,000 Miles a Year”. Sooty shearwaters migrate nearly 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) a year, flying from New Zealand to the North Pacific Ocean every summer in search of food. The birds leave New Zealand in the Southern Hemisphere’s winter—summer in the Northern Hemisphere—and take advantage of prevailing winds along different portions of their migration route. Our area is a resting point and feeding area as they return home in September.”

 

 

Black Bear in the Morning

black bear cubsYour first evening at Grizzly Bear Lodge includes a tour in looking for black bears. The “looking” for black bears is part of every trip we take in a boat. This photo was at 7:27 on August 11 on the back side of Minstrel Island the home of Grizzly Bear Lodge. Yes, we do have black bears on our island and our daily tours do leave at 7:30 or earlier if guests are ready.