After stopping in Telegraph Cove (see yesterday’s post) we head back onto the water for the second half of the day which means stellar sea lions in the spring and fall as the migrate between California and Alaska. This September day is unusual because all seems quiet on the sea lions haul out. Normally when there are this many stellar sea lions on one rock it becomes a mass of moving bodies with all of them wanting their complaints heard.
Tag Archives: activities
Telegraph Cove Break
Telegraph Cove is on Vancouver Island, two and one half hours north of Campbell River by car, is an important stop on a day’s whale watching. Important because it has a great public bathroom and a coffee shop that serves hot beverages. We have a good picnic lunch and lots of bottled water and soft drinks but on most days the bathroom is the first choice for our guests.
Arrival at Grizzly Bear Lodge 1 of 20
Peder, Ann and family arrived at Grizzly Bear Lodge in July for three nights. This meant a day with the grizzly bears, a day whale watching and the third day with Trapper Rick on a unique wild river, the Kakweikan. All the photos for the next twenty days of blogging were provided by David. The blog content is my creation and will hopefully tell the story of a good time had by all. First is how do they provide a photo of a plane landing on the day they arrived if they were on the plane. Obviously they were not on this plane because we frequently have two planes arriving minutes apart. The planes leave from Campbell River for the forty-five minute flight to Grizzly Bear Lodge.
Guest complain about food
The main complaint we receive from the guests is that they now know why they are asked to keep the weight of their luggage down because if they didn’t the plane would not get off the water due to weight gain. Looks like halibut, salmon, peas, rice or couscous, eggplant casserole, do not forget the fresh homemade bread at the other end of the table and wine. And this is after either homemade soup or salad. Dinner is a social time served by and eaten with your guides and the only rule we abide by is “What happens in the boat stays in the boat unless the guest mentions it first.”.
Time for a Grizzly Bear Tour
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
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.
Looking both ways on the river
If you book the extra day in camp we take a forty-five minute boat tour across Knight Inlet through Thompson Sound to the Kakweikan River where spend a day with Trapper Rick. This river is located on the BC mainland where we travel by road to Rick’s cabin. The first photo is the view from the deck of the cabin down the river overlooking the falls. The second photo is from below the falls back toward the cabin. On the left of this picture is the fish ladder built to assist the salmon around the falls that they had been jumping over for thousands of years. (Never question a government when it has money to spend.) The area below the falls is good for grizzly bear viewing, as it is one of their main fishing spots. We tend to sit on the deck and wait for the bears to appear and also hike to the lower pool another popular feeding area.
Trapper Rick Visit
If you stay the extra day at Grizzly Bear Lodge you visit The Trapper on the Kakweikan River at the head of Thompson Sound. Rick has lived and trapped in the area over the past twenty years and has a passion for the area and the grizzlies of “his” river valley. Few people outside of our guest visit the area as it is not open to public fishing therefore access to the area is limited. The first photo is the view from front deck of Rick’s cabin where it is not uncommon to see grizzly feeding below the falls. The second is the approach to the cabin through a trail covered by a canopy of alder trees. The main concern of walking the trail is to avoid stepping in the bear scat.
Lodge safari wildlife tour to the River
The rivers along the BC coast, in the area of Knight Inlet are subject to extreme water level changes, which may wash out a bridge. This was not the case with Rick’s river rather it was an engineer who had a section of a bridge removed. After the fact no other official agrees with the decision but it takes time to have an error corrected. Until then we use a boat. Photos byBruce & Carole Cripps 10-11