Halfway home, the boat is all cleaned and reprovisioned; we’re  waiting for Jim and Alicia’s plane to arrive from Seattle. Yesterday we left from Glendale Cove, in Knight Inlet, after an exciting visit with some Grizzly Bears. Becky and I had arrived the evening before and promptly put the dingy in the water. There is a bear observation lodge there; we talked with a guide that told us that there were 30 bears in the area. Unfortunately, it was high tide and the grass that draws the bears in was all covered in water. We didn’t see any bears but were able to run up the river with the dingy, that normally would have been too shallow.

Glendale Cove is pretty exposed  but we slept well and awoke to sun, thankfully. We hopped back in the dingy to see if we could find some bears. Straight away we saw a mother with a yearling. We were less than 50 yards away as they grazed  by us seemingly unaffected; used to people, which is a good thing. Good because Becky and I decided to head back up the river and were soon forced to turn around  because of the falling tide. We were forced  to row because when we turned back from the 300 yard trip into the streams mouth, the tide had fallen sharply enough that I couldn’t run the motor. I pulled the motor up and started to row. No sooner than I had, a mother bear and two cubs show up 25 yards away. Beautiful, but I couldn’t row fast enough to get away from them. I actually thought that they were going to cross the stream in front of us. Becky was saying alright close enough, I was telling her to take a picture and trying to get us into deeper water, all the time the bears kept walking closer. Finally I was able to start the motor, hoping that it would scare them off. It was very exciting I was shaking. When we got out of the river we saw another mother and three cubs. Enough of a bear fix, time to make some miles and reprovision for our guest. We’ll stay a couple more days in The Broughtons and then start South. Summer has finally arrived here; we’re loving it.

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