Guide Photos

Awesome sights on a daily basis!

Each day our guides see something new, it never gets old for these guys. Check out some of their photos from guiding bear and whale watching excursions.

What is the Grizzly looking at? 1 of 2

Grizzly in sedge grass

Prior to August 25th the grizzly bear tours from the lodge view bears in Knight Inlet’s Glendale River estuary. The viewing is from a 5.5 meter (yard) flat bottom skiff, which allows use to move up the river as the tide rises (see Nov. 27th posting). The advantage of the early season tours is that you are at eye level with the grizzlies as this photo shows. What you must realize is the sedge grass this bear is eating is at least a meter (three feet) high so this is not a cub. What is it looking at? See tomorrow’s post….

 

 

 

Returning from a Grizzly Bear Tour 4 of 4

Black Bear on tour

Another ten minutes along the shore we found a black bear that we watched eat barnacles it had scraped off the rocks. It then sat and watched us until we moved on to the lodge.  If you look at the lower part of the photo you will notice the bare spot missing barnacles.

 

 

 

Lunch on the float

dock lunch

As mentioned in yesterday’s post it is lunchtime. Madeline (our cook) prepares a wicked picnic lunch that guests enjoy and never able to finish.  The other boats at the dock belong to Tiderip Tours who are doing an estuary tour. After lunch if time permits we may take a tour up the river or return down the inlet looking for more bears and other marine life. See the next four posts…

 

 

 

Returning from the grizzly viewing stands

loading for lunch

We use the viewing stands on Knight Inlet’s Glendale River after August 24th. After an hour and twenty minute ride up the inlet we tie to a float, take a skiff to shore, ride in a van, climb into the viewing stands and watch grizzly bears for two hours. The above photo is part of the return process of getting back into the skiff to return to the float for lunch. The skiff comfortably holds five or six people and even has a ramp to keep your feet dry.

 

 

 

Commerical Salmon Fishing 1 of 2

Commercial Fishing

The Ocean Predator is a privately owner commercial fishing boat that contracts with Fisheries and Oceans Canada to do test sets for salmon at specific times and locations. They determine, by the amount of salmon they catch, if there will be a commercial fish for certain species of salmon.

 

 

 

What is the Grizzly looking at? 2 of 2

River Grizzly Bear

This picture puts it all in prospective. The guest’s head in the corner of the photo puts us across the river that is fifteen meters (yards) from the bear. Is the bear aware of our presence? Yes. Does it care? No. We have become part of the background for the grizzlies and as long as we respect their “comfort zone” there is not a problem and all the guides from the lodge have been doing this for more than ten years so we know which bears are approachable. The only “comfort zone” we sometimes cross is that of our guests.

 

 

 

Extra Day on the River 3 of 3

Grizzly blocking raod

The decision was that we were not a problem and the road was theirs to use. We waited and moved very slowly down the road and followed them for more than ten minutes until they found a break in the thick brush along the road. As they slowly moved off the road we were free to continue to the river and Rick’s cabin and to look for grizzlies feeding at the falls while salmon leaping the falls and moving up river.

 

 

Extra Day on the River 1 of 3

ricks walking

The extra day at the lodge normally means a trip to the Kakweikan River and a day with Trapper Rick.  This river is located on the BC mainland and we travel by road to Rick’s cabin. The day includes a short hike to Rick’s cabin once we have crossed the river. The walk, which follows the river, is the only time you are not aware to the mountains that surround the “wild” valley that Rick inhabits.

 

 

Waiting for? 1 of 2

Humpback whale missed

As a guide and blogger for the camp I try to get interesting shots that give me something to talk about. In this case it is a guest ready for a photo. What is so interesting about seagulls? For a guide the gulls are one of the most important sites on a whale watching tour. Herring are one of the main foods for humpback whales. Ducks feeding on herring force them into a tight ball that may vary in size from basketball to boat size. As the ball rotates it tends to move toward the surface, which in turn attracts the gulls to feed. It also attracts humpbacks that lunge up and try to take the ball in one mouth full. Tomorrow….