Trains and Grizzly Bears, A Canadian Roadtrip - Campbell River Day 2

Sunday, September 15 - Grizzly Bears

Val woke up this morning and said she had an excellent night’s sleep and was feeling much better, which was very good news.  We didn’t have to get up too early as our tour didn’t leave until 9:30 although we did have to get there at 9:00 to check in.  The skies looked a little lighter than yesterday, but it didn’t look to hopeful.  After getting ready and having some breakfast we were on our way for the ten minute drive to the boat dock.

When we were planning this trip to Toba Inlet for last year (before Val’s knee replacement), Val had heard about this tour and signed us up.  We had to cancel last year when we knew she needed the surgery, but we really wanted to do it, so we booked it again for this year.  The tour is from a company called Aboriginal Journeys that is based in Campbell River.  There are no roads on the mainland in the area where we are going to photograph the bears so even though Campbell River is on Vancouver Island, it is actually the closest place to leave from. This tour company has been doing grizzly bear tours for a long time and has a reputation for respecting the First Nation people, and the bears. 

The top (northern) red line shows the route of our trip today.  Captain Garry said he selects which route (northern or southern), depending on the current weather conditions.

The tour took us by boat from Vancouver Island, back to the mainland across the Strait of Georgia and then up the Toba Inlet to tribal land where we are met by a First Nation guide who took us to viewing spots where we would (hopefully) see the grizzly bears going after the spawning salmon in the river.  There is no guarantee of seeing the bears as these are of course wild animals that have their own agenda.  We have been looking forward to this just as much as the Rocky Mountaineer trip so we had high hopes for the day.

Discovery Bay

 

We arrive at the dock and got checked-in and waited for the rest of our fellow passengers to show up.  There would be 11 of us on the tour today, which has a maximum of 12.  The small size of the tour, and the fact that it goes to an area where the number of visitors is limited, are the main reasons we chose Aboriginal Journeys.  It wasn’t long before everyone was checked-in and we were on our way.

We were a mixed group with people from Switzerland, The Netherlands, Australians, one lady from Calgary, Canada and we Californians.  Our captain and company owner, Garry, told us it would take us about an hour to get to the mainland and the mouth of the Toba Inlet, and then another hour to go up the Inlet to where we would dock.  Just after we left Campbell River, we spotted some whale spouts so Gary stopped the boat and we went out on the rear deck to watch.  They were humpback whales and we watched for a bit, but we had to get going so it was back in the cabin and on our way.

We did see some whales, but that's not what we were after today so we didn't spend much time with them.

The day was cool and we were all bundled up, but at least it wasn’t uncomfortably cold.  As we reached the mainland and started up the Toba Inlet, it started to rain which didn’t bode well for the day.  Oh well, at least the bears don’t care about the rain or clouds, when they’re hungry they want to eat.  As we entered the Toba Inlet, Garry idled the engines and let the boat drift and served us sandwiches for lunch that were quite good.  I wasn’t expecting much so it was a pleasant surprise.  After a cookie for dessert, we were back on our way.

The scenery was beautiful as we continued up the inlet, with high mountains and flowing waterfalls all along the way.  We were limited in photographing it though, as we couldn’t go out on the small deck while we were underway.  Garry did stop at one point so we could go out and look at and photograph some of the waterfalls.

Captain Garry

 

We finally reached the end of the inlet and docked at some kind of a wilderness camp where we were met by our guide, Randy.  Randy is a member of the First Nation Tribe called the Klahoose and was very nice.  After giving a talk on safety and how this would work, he sang and drummed a traditional song to start us on a safe journey.

Our guide, Randy, sang and drummed a traditional song insuring us of a safe journey. The youngest of the tour group was very interested.

We then boarded a small van and drove for about 20 minutes to the first viewing spot.  Because it is of course, quite dangerous to be around where grizzly bears are, the Klahoose have built sturdy viewing platforms with stairs leading up to them and a sturdy gate to close it off.  The feature that was particularly welcome today was the viewing platforms were covered.  They also had benches which were nice as we did spend a lot of time on our feet today.  There were six viewing platforms and we visited four today.  Garry, after letting us off the boat, jumped into a pickup truck and drove around looking for bear activity which he reported to Randy.  They have obviously done this a lot and know the patterns the bears follow. so if they saw a bear they would report that it was moving towards a particular platform and would be there in 10 or 20 minutes.  The system worked well as we saw four different bears, some of them more than once. 

We were given instructions not to use a flash, to talk in whispers, and to move around as quietly as we could.  Even though we were on the platforms, I suspect that would not keep an angry grizzly from getting to us.  However, as we saw, they were much more interested in the salmon than us.

Despite our worry about the weather, this day turned out to be more than we had ever hoped for.  The scenery was incredible and seeing the grizzly bears in the wild moving around and actually catching and eating fish was something we will always remember.  Rather that write anymore, I’ll let our pictures show you what we saw.

This is the first viewing platform we visited.

Our first bear.

 

It's all about finding the salmon.

 

Bear prints

Eagles.  An adult and a juvenile.

 

Even though the bears went about their business as if we weren't there, they were definitely keeping an eye on us, particularly when they had a salmon.

Our last bear sighting of the day, time to start back.

 

After spending four and a half hours out on the viewing platforms, it was time to head back to the boat for our trip back to Vancouver Island and Campbell River.  It was a day we will never forget.  A lady from Calgary who was a fellow photographer said she had taken the same tour yesterday and while she saw bears she hadn’t seen them catching salmon as the river was higher and the bears weren’t able to spot the salmon very easily.  We felt very fortunate.

Val and our guide, Randy.

 

There is logging going on in the area and since there are no roads to move the camp from one location to another, this barge is towing part of a logging camp to a new spot.

 

It was a tired, but happy group that docked back in Campbell River just before 7:00.  Val and I found our car and drove back to our little house and finished off last night’s chili for dinner.  I downloaded our pictures and backed them up, but we’ll have to wait for tomorrow to look at them as there are so many, but I think we got some really good ones.  We were both tired, so we went to bed fairly early.

Tomorrow is our last day in Campbell River before moving on and we’re not sure what we’ll do.  If the weather improves we’d like to drive inland a bit to some places we know of, but we’ll have to just wait and see.  What a day we had today!