Grizzlies - Grizzlies! Im Knight Inlet in BC

Sunday, 8.7.

At 5.15h an already restless night comes to an end. You can't really sleep relaxed when you're not allowed to oversleep. I take a shower, despite all the warnings about the smell, otherwise I won't get going at all. I have the small snack bag from the hotel and eat the yogurt and leave shortly after 6. The temperature says 47°F, which is just over 8°C. The sky is still cloudy, a cloudy sky is forecasted for the day because huge forest fires are raging in Siberia and the smoke is blowing eastward in the jet stream.

Telegraph Cove is a really cute place consisting of historical wooden houses on a boardwalk above the water of the small bay. A pretty marina with many small boats, a few old shops, a café that hasn't opened yet, that's it. Nevertheless, I fall in love with this place and it will be one of the nicest places I have ever visited in my life.

The tour starts with 11 people, the boat has room for 12. We race through a fantastic mountain-island landscape at full speed, water splashing along the sides of the ship. After 10 minutes we see Orcas, shortly after that dolphins and high up in the trees on an island also bald eagles.

After about an hour we see the first grizzly bear, standing on the rocks by the shore with its two cubs. The boat's engine is turned off and we only whisper. On board is a nature guide who knows his way around and the skipper who also knows the spots where the bears are. A good map of the Knight Inlet region, where we're heading, is accessible to everyone on the boat.

The grizzly mom is not disturbed and the cubs, who come from this winter, look curiously. One of the cubs likes to roll on its back on the mussels that cover the stones by the water. Grizzly cubs stay with their mother for three years until she rejects them. Siblings usually stay together for another 3 years until they mate for the first time. So every four years a grizzly female has cubs. Since she mates with several males and the fertilized eggs only nest in November when it is clear that the female survives the winter, that she has enough fat, it is common for the female to have a litter in winter, whose cubs come from different fathers. That's why the cubs often have completely different colors. Grizzlies are the slowest reproducing mammals in North America.

We continue driving slowly, see another young bear on the mussels. He constantly turns stones to find small fish underneath. He grunts and crunches the mussels on the rocks.

Because of the rather long stays at the two bear sightings, we only reach the estuary late. Here, in the conservation area, we get on a motorized raft and observe a grizzly female directly at the pier, but then cross over to the other side of the bay and discover a mink between the rocks!

Well camouflaged: A mink

For lunch, everyone prepares a sandwich on our regular boat. We eat in the sun with a view of a female bear on the shore. Approaching from the left is a deer, which rather irritates the grizzly. The deer passes by the grizzly - that's it.

The grizzly now decides to take a leisurely bath and sits quasi there in its "bathtub" and scratches its ear with its foot or just paddles around.

The return journey is rough. The wind is against us and produces crispy waves. I stay outside on the aft deck almost the entire time. I sit there in a fleece and rain jacket in the sun, but the wind blows quite fast.

The return journey takes about 2 hours and shortly after 16.00h we reach the beautiful harbor of Telegraph Cove which peacefully lies in the sun.

Telegraph Cove

I stagger like a sailor to my car and drive north to see Port Hardy, the northernmost town on Vancouver Island.

Port Hardy

But the place is very disappointing. I was hoping for a coffee because I can hardly keep my eyes open. But there's nothing here. So back 23km to Port McNeill. I walk around the harbor, a beautiful marina with many boats.

Bald eagle / Port McNeill

A bald eagle sits on a lamppost and follows interesting movements in the harbor basin. I get a sandwich and eat it on a bench at the marina in the sun, but it's so cold because of the winds that come over the high mountains and cool down at the huge glaciers that I sit in three jackets. I watch the bald eagle and its buddies for a while, but I return to the hotel while it's still light outside, which is not difficult because it's still bright here at 22.00h today.

Tomorrow I'm going on one of these boat trips again. Nature is different every day. So the alarm clock rings again at 5.15h.