Tag Archives: scenery

Wild River Day – 6 of 7

trapper rick
Click to enlarge then click again

 

salmon jumping river falls
Click to enlarge then click again

Trapper Rick is a fountain of knowledge about his unique river valley.  He has worked for years to have the valley and bears protected and is very passionate about the area in which he lives. As shown in the first photo he is always willing to share his knowledge with the guest and has many stories about the bears he has known over the years. The guests photographing in the background are trying to get a photo like the second photo in the blog. A salmon jumping the falls. This will require you to click on the photo and then click again until it takes the full screen.

Wild River Day – 4 of 7

grizzlies by cabin
Click to enlarge then click again

 

photographing grizzlies
Click to enlarge then click again

The bears in the first photo are the ones I mentioned in yesterday’s post. After we moved to the deck the mother grizzly and three two year old cubs came up the bank from the river to just below the deck of the cabin. This photo is one I took from my small camera before they came closer and it was necessary to be more concerned with the bears than getting better pictures. But I can assure you the guest obtained good photos. Once these bears moved down the river to the fishing area and we waited until they settled in to fish we then moved down the river nearer the fish ladder and more photos were taken. All in all an excellent day on the river.

Wild River Day – 2 of 7

river scenery
Click to enlarge then click again

 

beautiful river
Click to enlarge then click again

On the fifteen-minute walk to Rick’s cabin we spend some time on a decommissioned bridge (and that story you will have to hear from Rick) which provides views of the Kakweikan River. The first photo is looking up the river to the boat pool and the second down river to the bend where the cabin is located. Depending on the time of the year salmon will be spawning below the bridge while the bald eagles fly overhead.

Wild River Day – 1 of 7

dolphins playing on tour
Click to enlarge then click again

More photos of a wild river day go to  “Categories” on the side and “River Day”. Also select “Google Map of Itinerary” under “Pages” to locate the icon for “Extra Day”.

On the extra day in camp we take a forty-five minute boat ride across Knight Inlet, through Thompson Sound to the Kakweikan River and spend a day with Trapper Rick.  This river is located on the BC mainland and once there we travel by road to Rick’s cabin. Along the shores through Thompson Sound there are black bears and the occasionally grizzly bear but most of the grizzlies are viewed in the area of the cabin. On the boat ride we frequently come across large pods of pacific white-sided dolphins, which like to play in the bow wave and prop wash of the boat.

 

Grizzly Bear Lodge early morning

grizzly bear lodge sunrise
Click to enlarge then click again

A guide’s view of early morning from the dock at Grizzly Bear Lodge on BC’s Knight Inlet. We are up about an hour before we call guests for breakfast and have often made several trips to the dock and our boats to make sure the picnic lunches are onboard with drinks and ice in the coolers. The boat tops are down, windshields cleaned and the seats dried and ready to leave by 7:30 or 8:00 depending on the season. Every morning in the lodge is a good morning some are just more scenic.

 

Myrna Daschuk, Haida Gwaii BC – 1

old grizzly viewing stand
Click to enlarge then click again

In the many years of blogging for Grizzly Bear Lodge this is the first time I have received a photo of a pine marten taken on the Glendale River. This old viewing stand is no longer in use as is demonstrated by the moss on the ladder.  That is no longer in use by humans but seems to be an ideal location for the pine marten giving a good view of the river and surrounding area.

A pine marten is about half the size of a house cat, but with the shorter legs and long supple body typical of the weasel family. It has a pointed muzzle, prominent ears, and a thick, bushy tail. The basic body colour of most martens is a shade of brown, but there with a range from pale blonde through yellows, tans, reds, grays, and dark browns to nearly black. The legs and tail are darker than the rest of the body on most specimens, and most animals also have a distinctive yellow to orange “bib” patch on the throat and chest.

Summer Slide – 3

knight inlet slide
Click to enlarge then click again

Talking to the “locals” this was the worst side that any can remember and the first time a slide warranted a warning by the Canadian Coast Guard over the marine radio. But even in this story there is a sliver lining.  The log salvagers in the area made years income in a month. Log salvagers are licensed and there were three boats collecting logs from the inlet and the beaches, which were later sold through log brokers for between fifty to several hundred dollars per log depending on the log.

 The photo show guests have their picture taken beside a “deadhead” (a sunken or partially sunken log). The slide brought down many trees with their roots still wrapped around large rocks and these floated upright.  At times the top of the deadhead would extend two meters (six feet) out of the water making them easy to see and avoid with the boat.

Summer Slide – 2

slide
Click to enlarge then click again

Slide debis

Travelling up Knight Inlet became like running through a maze. For the first two weeks the inlet was covered with slide debris and it was necessary to go quite slow and at times to push our way through the mess of small floating logs and branches.  As the trees came off the mountainside it was like they were in a debarking machine used by sawmills. As you can see they were free of branches and bark. The large islands of twisted trees were less of a problem as they were easy to move around. As the photo shows trees up to a meter (three feet) thick were snapped like toothpicks.  It is important to realize that in order for the logs in this pile to be so high out of the water (top logs close to three meters – nine feet) the other logs likely extended the same distance or more into the water. There were dozens of these floating rafts of logs in the inlet. More tomorrow…

 

My morning perspective

spirder view of lodge
Click to enlarge then click again

Some mornings I may have too much time on my hands.  We rise at 6:30 start coffee, finish setting the breakfast table and load our boats with the picnic lunches and check for fuel. The guests are called at 7:00 and we depart before 8:00 for the day’s activities.  Sometime in there I noticed the spider web on the scales used to weight the salmon, in the background the lodge. I think artist license rather than boredom.

Trapper Rick’s river scenery

Looking backThe River

If you have chosen the extra day at Grizzly Bear Lodge it is normally spent with Trapper Rick on a wild river that few people get to visit. It is a classified fishing river and therefore is not open to public fishing without a guide.  As the first photo shows just going to the river requires passing through the foothills of the Coast Mountains. The second photo shows the upper river in full flood after a heavy fall rain, it is possible for the river to rise six to eight feet over night and go down just as fast.  The sudden rise and fall of the river is due to the fact that it is located in a steep sided valley, which again provided for interesting photos. Time spent with Rick is worth the trip as he explains his stewardship of the valley and his years trapping in the area. Also a chance to fish for pink and coho salmon and hike to areas to wait for the grizzly bears to show the best fishing techniques.