More grizzlies & a black bear - boat tour from Telegraph Cove

Monday 7/9/2018

Shortly after 6, I sit in the car. Today we are driving with 9 people on the boat. The skipper is Marc, our guide from yesterday, Lindsay is not here, instead Daryl is driving, who explains even better. Unfortunately, the weather today looks scary. It's a little warmer at 57°F (about 14°C), but the clouds are dense and low. We don't see a bald eagle or a whale on the route today. Only a few dolphins accompany us from time to time.

The grizzly mother with her cubs is still in the area. Today she is a bit further away, but then she walks in front of our boat over a narrow piece of land onto a kind of island and we have the best position for observation and photos on our floating boat.

The sun comes out and the high mountains are only hidden in a veil - probably from the fires in Siberia. The two cubs are now playing on a tree stump. One always tries to push the other down and the one sitting on top tries to defend his position with all sorts of tricks. Really funny to watch.

Shortly before we switch to the skiff, we see the young bear that we saw yesterday. It is a about 2.5-year-old female, who - according to our guide - has been traveling with her brother.

We get even closer to this bear with the skiff, but otherwise there is no more trip to the other side of the bay, like yesterday, when we discovered the mink there.

The bear that bathed so photogenically in front of us yesterday has moved far to the left onto a large meadow and can only be seen with the telephoto lens or one of the binoculars on board! 

So the journey goes back to Telegraph Cove, I take my usual place aft and outside, sitting in the now shining sun again and enjoy the breeze and the great view. After almost 2.5 hours, I'm almost deaf from the boat's roar and yet happy when we dock.

In Telegraph Cove it's just nice. I get myself a coffee, sit outside in front of the store and sit there in the sun for almost two hours.

I watch the boats, the leisure fishermen who bring their huge fish ashore and cut them directly on the prepared tables and pack them in their coolers. However, everything here closes at 6 pm and I leave for the hotel.

However, I only get about 2 minutes far, when I notice some expansive movements next to me in the raspberries and the accompanying thorny undergrowth.

A black bear is eagerly trying to harvest the berries there. You can see his head sometimes, his back other times, and you hear branches breaking and him grumbling annoyed. Apparently, the prey is not so easy to get. At some point, he slides down the slope with some bushes and onto the road next to my car, which is now standing still. He grumbles grumpily to himself, continues walking, takes another quick look around and decides on the next bush - and disappears.

Not 200m further there is a black tailed deer at the side of the road, also feeding on the bushes. Hopefully, it has its sensors extended because of the bear... But that's also the only animals today, even though I drive 50km to the south and back, hoping to discover something on the side of the road.

The sunset is fantastically beautiful, the mosquitoes play in the light and leave me alone. A beautiful landscape, high mountains with snow everywhere, several lakes, forests, and hardly any traffic. Truly fantastic. I just don't want to have a breakdown up here... At 9 pm I am in Port McNeill and quickly get myself a sandwich and a beer, go to the hotel and fall onto my bed.

Tomorrow I can finally sleep in! Yay!