The Lodge

All about Sailcone’s Grizzly Bear Lodge

There’s lots to see and do right here at the lodge. Some of the best wildlife viewing opportunities are right outside your window. The trip here on the float plane is a scenic one with lot’s of great photo opportunities.

Arrival snack

Fresh crabs to eat

Guest normally arrive from Campbell River by seaplane around 3:30. Luggage is carried to the lodge, rooms are assigned and a snack set out on the main lodge deck. The snack is a variety of cheeses, crackers, antipasto, tea or coffee and of course the main item either fresh dungeness crabs or prawns. And I think the table also shows a can of pop and a beer. While you are eating and Angus has a captive audience he will go over the operation of the camp and outline the day’s itinerary. Before you eat again at 6:30 there is time for a black bear tour of the local area where you become familiar with the boats and guides and of course look for black bears, bald eagles, seals, and occasionally seeing grizzlies.

 

 

Sunrise Just Missed

Lodge sunrise

The morning view across the bay in front of the Lodge. Guest are called between 6:30 and 7:00 for an 8:00 or 8:30 departure depending on the time of the season. A good breakfast is on the table and most important fresh coffee or tea. This photo shows the tail end of a beautiful sunrise over calm waters.

 

 

Gourmet food

Table set

We frequently have guests say: “I now know why you want us to keep our luggage on the incoming plane at 10 kg (app. 20 lbs.). It is because of the weight we add eating.” Meals at the lodge are not only gourmet they are a social occasion. It does not matter if it is the first meal before any tours or the last meal before you leave there is always lots to talk about. Dinner is normally around 6:30 and we seldom leave the table before 8:30 so it can be set for morning breakfast and then the conversation carries on in the “living room”. The one thing the guest comment about beside the great food is that they eat with the staff, which is always around to answer questions and provide great stories.

Food on table

 

 

 

From Grizzly Bear Lodge’s front deck

Grizzly Bear Lodge sunrise

When we get a sunrise it is beautiful. This is the start of one such sunrise. The problem the lodge is located in the microclimate of Knight Inlet that frequently brings an overcast sky at night. This overcast is gone by 11:00 but that is too late for a sunrise. If you go to “Categories” at the left and click on “The Lodge” you will see two or three pictures of sunrises  (if you scroll far enough down the page there is an excellent sunrise near the end).

 

 

Time for a Grizzly Bear Tour

Tour to go

Mornings on the water can be a little cool so many guest wear the “floater suite” provided by Grizzly Bear Lodge. If you don’t wear them they must be in the boat as they are your lifejackets. If you are acclimatized to the West Coast the suits are not necessary as this guest demonstrates. On most days, by noon, the suits are in the front of the boat. Departure from the lodge is by 7:30 or 8:00     depending on the time of the year and this is after a 6:30 or 7:00 wake up call and a good breakfast. A picnic lunch is a must as we normally return between 3:30 and 4:30 depending on the tour. The only tight schedule is the fall trips to the grizzly bears when we use the viewing stands and we must be in the stands by 10:00 all other trips are flexible.

 

 

Departure from Grizzly Bear Lodge

Guests good morning

It must be close to 7:30 am as the guests are on the dock and ready to leave for a day of wildlife viewing. In the morning guests are called for breakfast at 6:30 for the 7:30 departure. The red / orange float suits are your government approved life jackets and as one of my guest said like wearing a duvet, in this case a warm waterproof duvet. On the dock is the picnic lunch for the boat. These lunches are always popular with the guests and our cooks philosophy is “that if the basket comes back almost empty she did not pack enough” it does not matter if the guest ate twice their body weight in food. Note that it is a maxim of four guests per boat and often less.

 

Interesting Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear lodge grizzly

This grizzly bear is enjoying the berries from a back berry patch. Now that is not too interesting until you notice the metal roof in the lower right corner of the photo. This is the roof of the smokehouse that is 5 meters (yards) from the back door of Grizzly Bear Lodge and that grizzly is in our black berry patch. This became a problem and it took close to a week of very alert guides and guests until we made enough noise and believe it or not threw enough rocks to scare the bear off our island. The bear population in Knight Inlet is growing so the bear are starting to move out the inlet and even crossing Johnstone Strait to Vancouver Island. In the spring it has become more common to view grizzlies on the larger island around the lodge. There have been grizzlies on the lodge’s Minstrel Island in the past few years but the island is small and they were gone after a day.

 

Sometimes lucky!

Pacific whiteside dolphins

It is not uncommon to encounter a pod of Pacific Whitesided Dolphins while on a tour from Grizzly Bear Lodge. These dolphins travel and feed in Knight Inlet as well as along the shores of Vancouver Island. This means that the encounter is as likely to happen while on a grizzly bear tour or a visit to trapper Rick’s as it is while whale watching. Less common is to get a photo of a dolphin completely out of the water this is where luck comes in to play. The best approach to getting a good photo of a dolphin is to take as many as possible in the hopes that one will contain a dolphin and not just water or sky. Luck often is better than skill.

 

 

Guide’s Sunrise at the Lodge

Sunrise at Grizzly Bear Lodge

Depending on the time of year the camp guides are up at either 6:00 or 6:30 to make the morning coffee and complete the setting of the breakfast table by putting out the “perishables”. The guests are called an hour later, which gives them an hour for breakfast as we like to be away from the dock by 8:30 in the spring and by 8:00 when we are going up river to the viewing platforms in the fall. A beautiful sunrise is not that common in camp, as we are located in a mini-climate created by Knight Inlet. This climate means that it is normally overcast by late evening and does not clear until about noon. The overcast and late clearing means that there are few sunrises and those that do happen require guests to be up with the guides. Depending on the time within your vacation this is not normally a problem because of the “jet lag”.

 

Bald Eagle Spotting

Young Bald Eagle

It does not matter if we are on a grizzly bear tour, whale watching or on a trip to Trapper Rick’s on the extra day in camp guests are always looking for bald eagles.  The eagles white head is easy to spot as we run along the shore to our destination. What is hard to see is the immature eagles, which do not start getting their white feathers until their third year and do not have a full white head until their fifth. Juvenile bald eagles are a mixture of brown and white with a black beak in young birds. The adult plumage develops when they are sexually mature. Once we have reached either the grizzly bear viewing area or the location of the whales and we have stopped to view the wildlife it is much easier to find the juvenile eagles along the sore.