Great Bear Rain Forest Tours

August 20 – September 23 2006
We were so happy to be back in the Central Coast. The weather was perfect with sun and favourable winds for the whole time we were up there. Unfortunately, the lack of rain and warm waters were very hard on the returning salmon that were waiting for enough water to return to their spawning grounds. It seemed as if the whole natural world of the coast was waiting for the rains to begin. The wolves, eagles and bears where waiting hungrily for their autumn food supply and the forests were very dry, but as humans we thought that the weather was great. It is always such a pleasure to introduce guests to this area; the steep sided fjords, the open sandy beaches, the opportunities to see wildlife always keep us excited. More than anywhere else on the coast, the crew here are as eager for each day, each cove and each anchorage. It is always sad to head south at the end of our travels in this area.

Even the skipper got wet in Roscoe Inlet… the entire group went swimming in the unusually warm (far too warm for the salmon) waters of the inlets. It was all great until I snuck back on board and started to chug away down the channel… “I’ll meet you in Bella Bella”, I yelled and followed that by a blast on the air horn…

Lead Guide, office coordinator, and daughter, Miray has her birthday party on tour in the Great Bear.

Despite the resident Irish musicians on the Columbia III, two guests treated us to a back-deck concert of “Old Time” tunes from the American south.

Our last tour had a deranged sports-day with a wide variety of voluntary events, like the “under bum rock toss”

Fern gets a rare day off from the galley to paddle the sandy shores of the Central Coast.

Repositioning to the Great Bear Rain Forest

Aug 16- 19 2006
We allow ourselves a week to move the boat up or down from the Bella Bella area. It doesn’t take that long, but the waters off Cape Caution are very exposed to the open Pacific. I always like the extra breathing space on the schedule to allow us to pick a good day for making it around the “Cape”. Last fall we came around in 4 meter seas with light winds. This summer the seas were down but the wind was up, so we spent a half day in the Deserter Group off Port Hardy waiting for the NW winds to ease off. The slow pace didn’t seem to bother the crew as we were more than happy to catch up on our SLEEP!