The Great Bear Rainforest

We are just back from running the Great Bear Rainforest trip where we day paddled beneath 4000' granite cliffs to visit salmon running rivers from the comforts of Raincoast Conservation Society's 70 ' sloop 'Achiever'. Brian Falconer and first mate Doug Jodrell were on board, who helped make this trip a fantastic success. On one day we saw 2 sprit bears in the morning (it is quite rare to see them!) and counted 9 grizzlies and 1 black bear feeding on the salmon about 3 meters from where we sat. We didn't see wolves but heard them howl in the night and saw fresh tracks, headless salmon (they eat only the brain) and some diggings. We also had nice sightings of Humpback whales. We left the Achiever on Sept. 21 to paddle the wild rugged west coast of Campania Island, over to Pitt Island, through Union Passage to the small Gitga'at community of Hartley Bay. Here we met up with Marven Robinson to go see 2 more spirt bears! This trip was rated as 5 star as being for the soul! We especially enjoyed seeing many sea birds which included Sandhill cranes, Common murres, Harlequin ducks, Scoter ducks, Ruddy and Black turnstones, Hooded mergansers, Pacific loons, Common loons to name a few! You can see the images of the trip from our guests by going to the following site: picasaweb.google.com. The username is: greatbearrainforest The password (named after John's now-legendary fishing exploits) is: fourfish. You can also read up about the trip in this month's issue of National
Geographic Adventurer. Attached is Doug's recording of some of the wolves we heard on evening. Howling Wolves 01.wav