All posts by shelby
What is in between? 3 of 3
The Coast Mountains in the background make for a memorable flight to the Lodge from Campbell River. For many guests it is their first flight in a small plane. For some it is a “white knuckle” flight while others could do it every day. Keep a camera handy, as you will be flying for about forty-five minutes over nothing but a beautiful landscape that will give you some idea of the vastness of “Beautiful British Columbia”.
Grizzly Bears Cubs wait
About 35 meters (yards) from the viewing platform we use after August 24th a tree has fallen across a small channel in the river. This tree has become a pathway for the grizzly bears that do not want to get their feet wet. That means bear cubs because they tend to avoid the water if they can. They use the log to watch their mother as she fishes in the river below and if she is too slow in catching a salmon it is a good place to rest.
The first trip of the season and what a trip! Angus looked after us so well during the days and always found the best places to view the wildlife; Cathy tried her hardest to make us gain weight- many thanks- while John and Clint kept everything ticking all over really well. Many Many thanks for looking after us! Bye Bye Emily J
Jill & Eric, Worcester UK
Itinerary Extra Day
For Longer, 4 Night Trips
After breakfast we take you to our wild river, the Kakweiken, by safari boat. View Black Bear, Seals, and perhaps a school of playing White-Sided Dolphins on the way. Meet one of our river guides, Trapper Rick or his assistant, and ride the Trapper’s “Grizzly Truck” to the spawning area of the river. View grizzly and Black Bears and Bald Eagles while watching the schools of salmon preparing for spawning. If you wish, fish off the bank for the salmon or trout.
Enjoy your picnic lunch at the trapper’s cabin overlooking the waterfalls – a good time to spot a Grizzly Bear feeding on the jumping salmon. In the truck and back to the boat and enjoy your trip home to the lodge before catching your seaplane back to Campbell River for your final night.
Add a 5th day!
Repeat Grizzly Trip to the Glendale River viewing area. Day #6 is free in Campbell River
Wildlife Report 2022 In Review
2022 was a wonderful season, after being more or less shut down by covid. It was wonderful to welcome guests and staff back to the lodge and enjoy some great wildlife sightings.
Bear viewing was great right from the start of our season in late May until the end in mid October. In the spring we were able to view the bears feeding on sedge grass in the estuary and various marine creatures such as shore crab, mussels and barnacles. Our steady viewing continued, but the real treat was starting to see good numbers of salmon entering the river systems by late July. After a few years of mediocre runs this was great news. We took guests to the viewing platforms starting on August 25th and had some great sightings of bears actively feeding on salmon. During mid September we had some very dry weather. This led to many of the fish holding in the deeper pools and although our sightings remained good they did become a bit more sporadic. Thankfully we received some rain later in the month and had some great viewing into early October. We are hopeful with some well fed bears this season we should be seeing more cubs emerging next spring..
On the Kakweiken River trip we had some great Grizzly Bear viewing, particularly from late July through August. The salmon were early here as well and so were the bears. Pink numbers were decent and we also saw good number of Coho Salmon. There was some phenomenal viewing at the falls with “Moira” staging in the chute area. Later on in the season we saw a lot of “Andy” and a few other bears that we are not familiar with. After a couple years of not being out consistently it was very rewarding to see some bears that we haven’t come across in a couple of years. The bears in this system looked to be in excellent condition by the season end, which is great news moving forward.
It was also a great year for marine mammals in both Knight Inlet and Johnstone Strait. The resident (fish eating) Orca showed up in mid July and were around until late September feasting on salmon. The transient (mammal feeding orca) were around quite a bit this year and we were lucky to see them hunting both harbour seals and white sided dolphins on several occasions . The Humpback Whales were amazing once again and were very abundant throughout the entire season. As usual there were large numbers of humpbacks in Johnstone Strait and Blackfish Sound. On several occasions we had Humpbacks right in front of the lodge, as well as Humpbacks in the Inlet, particularly in late September. In addition White Sided Dolphins, Stellar Sea Lions and Porpoise were common sightings. Big news this year were the rafts of Sea Otters we viewed near Queen Charlotte Strait. In the past Sea Otters have been an occasional sighting, but as their numbers improve it seems like we are starting to have more “resident otters” in the area. This is great news as they are a key species in preserving kelp forests. For the avid birders there was plenty to view as well. Bald Eagle, Belted Kingfisher, Marbled Murrelets, Rhinoceros Auklets, Pigeon Guillemots, Storm Petrels, Surf Scoters, and Osprey to name a few.
Melinda, Molly, Felix and myself are all looking forward to 2023. Looking forward to getting some projects completed around the lodge in the spring. We are working on some trails around the lodge, as well as some added dock space and room upgrades. Hope to see you guys in 2023
Angus Reid (owner)
