![\"BC](\"http:\/\/riffelages.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/BC-Coast-map1.jpg\" "\\"BC")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe map above shows our route in a bit more detail.<\/p>\n \n North and west of Bella Bella, we negotiated this narrow passage.\u00a0 Not many people come this way as you can only get through at high tide.\u00a0 But it\u2019s an interesting area and we wanted to explore\u2026\u00a0 Our route is shown in red.\u00a0 We anchored overnight and took the kayaks out the next day, first to have another look at the narrows, and then we paddled out around the outer islands.<\/p>\n \n This is the narrow part of the pass at low tide.\u00a0 We had come through here yesterday on the boat \u2013 now it was shallow enough to walk across!<\/p>\n \n Jan was on the shore examining the low tide sea life.\u00a0 On the left is a Clown Nuibranch among the seaweed.<\/p>\n \n One of the hazards of narrow and shallow passes is that they are often choked with seaweed.\u00a0 Higgins Pass was no exception so I had to dive under the boat to clear kelp out from around the propeller.<\/p>\n \n The low tide exposes an ancient Native fish trap in an estuary.<\/p>\n \n Further down the shore, a Sandhill Crane dances for his mate.<\/p>\n \n Eagle, and eagle\u2019s nest.<\/p>\n \n Continuing up the coast, this is one of the many estuaries that we explored in our kayaks.<\/p>\n \n This rainforest is rich in mosses.<\/p>\n \n A waterfall that you can paddle right up to.<\/p>\n \n At this river we discovered that if we could get our kayaks up past this rapid we could paddle in a large lake.<\/p>\n \n Coming back down the river after our lake paddle.<\/p>\n \n Meanwhile, back on board, I had to climb in to fix a problem with the batteries.<\/p>\n \n We had a few rainy days, so here are some rainy weather pictures\u2026<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n Finally, this stretch of rain ended with a rainbow to cheer us up.<\/p>\n \n Another fun rock totem.<\/p>\n \n OOOHH, a sunny day!<\/p>\n \u00a0 Nice and warm out (but I\u2019m still wearing my sweater), I get some reading in while Jan tends to her struggling garden.<\/p>\n \n \n Raven Song anchored among the mountains of Princess Royal Island.<\/p>\n \n \n A couple of waterfalls in Surf Inlet on Princess Royal Island.\u00a0 This one is from an abandoned dam at the head of the inlet.<\/p>\n \n A whale research outpost at the north end of Aristazabal Island.\u00a0 There are a lot of whales in this area, and very little marine traffic, making it a good place for the researchers to use their hydrophones to listen to the whales.<\/p>\n \n After weeks of isolated cruising, imagine our surprise when we met this crowd in a remote cove off the west side or Aristazabal Island.\u00a0 They turned out to be a group of geoduck fishers.\u00a0 Geoducks are harvested by divers using high pressure hoses to blast the clams out of the seabed.\u00a0 These guys told us that they are allowed to harvest this area every three years.<\/p>\n \n Trying my hand at catching dinner.\u00a0 Once in a while it happens, but not today.<\/p>\n \n Meanwhile, Jan made us some apple cobbler to keep the crew going.<\/p>\n \n One day a couple of hummingbirds kept flying around the boat.\u00a0 This one sat still long enough for a quick pic.<\/p>\n \n We pass by Kayel, the spring and summer fishing camp for the Hartley Bay Native band.<\/p>\n \n Another group of Sandhill Cranes foraging in an estuary.<\/p>\n \n A couple of deer on the shore.\u00a0 A rare sight, actually.\u00a0 We don\u2019t see many deer.<\/p>\n \n A black bear and cub grazing along the shore in one of our anchorages.<\/p>\n \n Heading down Grenville Channel in a rain shower.<\/p>\n \n The rain moves on, leaving us with a rainbow just outside of Hartley Bay.<\/p>\n \n \n The Native village of Hartley Bay.\u00a0 We have visited there in the past but of course couldn\u2019t stop in this time.\u00a0 However we hung around in front of the village for a while to use the phone signal to call home.<\/p>\n \n After we had caught up on news from home by Hartley Bay, we headed inland up Douglas Channel bound for the Gardner Canal.<\/p>\n Along Douglas Channel we had some great scenery, with many scenes like this where you can see a stream start up in the snow and tumble down to the ocean.<\/p>\n \n Artful tree along Douglas Channel.<\/p>\n \n Jan is excited about the tasty crab cakes she made for dinner.<\/p>\n \n This little structure along the Gardner Canal houses a hot tub.\u00a0 Yes, it\u2019s a hot spring!<\/p>\n \n Harald paddling around in the grass and giant skunk cabbage, looking for bears. (Yes, I\u2019m actually in my kayak paddling here\u2026)<\/p>\n \n Another rainy stretch.\u00a0 We spent two days sitting out a storm here in the Kiltuish Inlet, just off Gardner Canal.\u00a0 The scenery was dramatic, whenever the mountains peeked through.<\/p>\n \n Waterfall in Kiltuish Inlet.<\/p>\n \n Look, it\u2019s actually stopped raining!<\/p>\n \n With a break in the weather, we paddled over to an estuary where we had seen a Grizzly grazing the day before.\u00a0 Here I am pretending to be a whitewater kayaker in the Europa river.<\/p>\n \n Leaving Kiltuish inlet as the weather improves.<\/p>\n \n Back out in Gardner Canal, we meet up with a commercial prawn boat and ask about some prawns.<\/p>\n \n We send over a bucket and cash, and back comes a bucket of fresh prawns!<\/p>\n \n Continuing up the Gardner Canal, the scenery became more and more impressive.<\/p>\n \n We anchored in Owyacumish Bay.\u00a0 There are two rivers here \u2013 the Owyacumish, which can be seen in the background, tumbles down in a waterfall.\u00a0 The other river is the Brim river where we are going to explore to try to find a hot spring.\u00a0 Yes, that\u2019s a patch of snow just across the bay.<\/p>\n \n Looking up the Brim River estuary in the evening.<\/p>\n \n Jan paddling up the Brim river estuary the next day in search of hot springs.<\/p>\n \n After some exploring, we found the hot spring.\u00a0 Here Jan is standing in the spring, which comes up in the middle of a small creek.\u00a0 The water was very hot but there wasn\u2019t much of it so unfortunately we didn\u2019t get a soak.<\/p>\n \n Jan taking a break on a block of snow by the shore.\u00a0 Raven Song anchored in the background.<\/p>\n \n Of course we had to climb up to the patch of snow that was just up the hill.\u00a0 It turned out to be a bit of a scramble.\u00a0 Here\u2019s Harald hiking up,\u00a0 deep in the ferns and devils club.<\/p>\n \n Taking scenery shots from the snow.<\/p>\n \n Raven Song at anchor from up on the hill.<\/p>\n \n Back on board, Jan dances while she makes pizza.<\/p>\n \n More mountain scenery, and a rare patch of blue sky, as we continue up the Gardner Canal.<\/p>\n \n At the Kemano river estuary we spotted this Grizzly with two cubs.\u00a0\u00a0 We watched them for a while from the boat.\u00a0 The cubs were ever so cute!<\/p>\n \n Farther along we came across a cave formed by a block of ice, with a waterfall behind.\u00a0 This demanded exploration, so we took the dinghy in to check it out.<\/p>\n \n Jan exploring the ice cave.<\/p>\n \n Lots of great waterfalls along the Canal.<\/p>\n \n Our turnaround point in the Gardner Canal was Chief Matthews Bay, which featured several of these avalanche chutes where snow lingered right down to the ocean.\u00a0 We felt like we were up on a high alpine lake.<\/p>\n \n Jan in the weeds, paddling up the Kowesas river estuary at Chief Matthews Bay.<\/p>\n \n In the estuary meadows, wildflowers bloom in abundance.<\/p>\n We spent some time wandering in the meadow, after checking that no bears were about.<\/p>\n \n Jan picks a bouquet for the boat.<\/p>\n \n Back on board, Jan is assessing progress on her never-ending sweater knitting project.<\/p>\n \n \n Early morning rainbow as we leave Chief Matthews Bay and head back down the Gardner Canal for more populated areas. Our route would take us down to Douglas Channel, past Hartley Bay, up busy Grenville Channel and on to Prince Rupert.<\/p>\n \n Here\u2019s a change of scene.\u00a0 Approaching Prince Rupert Harbour.<\/p>\n \n Another change of scene.\u00a0 I gave up the shaggy mariner look and got a haircut.\u00a0 Jan is still adjusting to my new look!<\/p>\n \n Shore days are busy days, as we load up on groceries and do other errands like boat cleaning and laundry.\u00a0 We took a break in the evening and had dinner in the pub.<\/p>\n \n Raven Song at the Prince Rupert docks.\u00a0 This is as far north as we are planning to go.\u00a0 From here we will start slowly meandering our way back south.<\/p>\n \n \n Back to the previous section.\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Continue to the next section.<\/a><\/p>\n Home<\/a><\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our last blog entry ended with our resupply stop at Shearwater, which is a marine supply centre right around the corner from Bella Bella.\u00a0 After stocking up with whatever groceries we could rustle up by phone order, we continued our journey north.\u00a0 We are now deep in the Great Bear Rainforest.\u00a0 As the name suggests,… Continue reading 2020 Part 3 – “Isolating in the Great Bear Rainforest”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":1427,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1652","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riffelages.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riffelages.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riffelages.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riffelages.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riffelages.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1652"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/riffelages.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2776,"href":"https:\/\/riffelages.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1652\/revisions\/2776"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riffelages.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riffelages.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n