Great Bear Lodge

Great Bear Lodge 2-5^th August 2012

Smith Inlet, Northern British Columbia

Having spent a lovely morning driving up in the ever-increasing sunshine from Port McNeill to Port Hardy (about thirty miles) we strolled around the harbour, went to the visitors’ centre and had lunch at the Quarterdeck Inn before Marian and Margaret dropped us off at the seaplane terminal for their journey to Victoria and our own sea plane (or float plane, as they say here) to Great Bear.

The bags were loaded and we donned our lifejackets before boarding our tiny five-seater plane with two of our companions for the trip, Andy and Catherine.

I gripped the pilot’s seat back for the first ten minutes of the flight, but it was actually remarkably smooth and the take-off and landing in sea planes is almost imperceptible. The scenery – acres and acres of pine forest, tiny islands and sea inlets – stretched for miles and was like something out of a nature documentary. Only the logged areas of the forests disturbed the views but apparently there are laws in place to ensure replanting.  After about thirty minutes we descended into Smith Inlet and caught our first glimpse of the floating lodges and outbuildings of Great Bear Lodge, with its newly added 250ft dock which has recently been towed out from Port Hardy.

Tom, Marg and the other staff greeted us warmly and the previous guests took the return flights back to Port Hardy. We were a party of nine Brits in total with David, Charlotte and their three children Maddy, Francesca and Jonah along with Andy, Catherine and us.

We are all keen travellers and Maddy is studying Geography at St Anne’s in Oxford so Mark instantly found some common ground and we bonded as a group in no time.

The lodge prides itself on its wilderness gourmet meals and we all took full advantage of the fantastic menu (see below!) all of which is prepared by Leanne and her team in her floating kitchen fifty air miles from any other civilisation!

Wilderness Gourmet Menu:

Thursday 2^nd

Alder BBQ Maple Sockeye Salmon, salad, Roasted Sweet Potato

Chocolate Lava Cakes

Friday 3^rd

Granola, blueberry lemon muffins, fruit, yoghurt

Maple candied salmon and goat’s cheese salad, Havarti and Old Cheddar, apples

Home-baked bread

Lamb shanks with port, red wine and garlic, snap peas, and asparagus

Velvet lemon tart

Saturday 4^th

Multigrain pancakes with fruit compote

Butternut squash soup,  Florentine muffins

Melon and grapes

Burmese spiced duck, warm red rice and wheatberry salad with wild mushrooms, courgette & carrots

Warm berry crisp and ice cream

Sunday 5^th

Cheese, mushroom and Ham frittata

Croissants, jam

Fruit and granola

Pea and ham French-style soup

Croque monsieur

Melon and grapes

Snacks and sundries:

Banana chocolate nut bread, Killer Cookies (always in large glass jars and sometimes still warm), Nuts, Maple candied salmon, freshly ground coffee, Stash Earl Grey Tea, Granville Island Beers, BC wines and chardonnay-coloured mineral water (due to the high tannin levels in the local springs).

John, one of our wildlife safari guides, gave us a bear briefing on the dock and provided us with our attractive camouflage puffa suits, life jackets and boots for the boat trips.
After a sumptuous salmon dinner with Tom, the owner of the lodge who entertained us instantly with his stories, expertise, technical wizardry and wit, we headed out on the boats for our first trip meandering up and down the inlet and the river beyond to see seals, eagles, heron, otter, mink and the first salmon swimming upstream.

This is a tricky time of year to see bears, particularly as the berries in the forests are so plentiful (and delicious to humans too – especially salmonberries and thimbleberries) and the river does not yet have enough fish for them to catch, but we were not downhearted that the first safari had brought no sightings and the scenery and fading light was simply stunning.

After an early start and our first ‘bountiful breakfast’, we suited up again and were rewarded on our second trip with a sighting of a two-year old male grizzly who we named Ted, owing to his teddy bear resemblance.  Drifting downsteam with no motor running (the current is very quick owing to the vastly ranging tides) was the most peaceful experience possible – just an occasional Bald Eagle or Douglas Squirrel to punctuate the silence and ensure we weren’t in danger of dozing off!

Spending more and more time with the guides was fantastic – they led us on a ‘mystery tour’ after lunch to Walkum Bay and Pirates Cove (we even had Jolly Rogers and a supersoaker to ambush the other boat!).

The water was completely clear and we were introduced to many of the bears’ favourite berries including wild blueberries which we picked from the boat.

Watching the mist come in during the last hour of our night safaris and burn off again in the morning was ethereal. Bob the seal was invariably waiting to greet us in the morning and several other curious seals swam near the boat to see what we were up to. We continued to see evidence of bears in the form of some amazing tracks and shapes in the distance, but there was no other close encounter to rival Ted.

We took an interpretative hike on Saturday afternoon seeing several berry-filled bear droppings, bear trails, mark trees (which bears rub against to leave their scent) and day beds where the bears take a nap between the long hours of grazing (about 18 hours a day to ensure they ingest the 20,000 calories they need each day). Suzanna and John were fantastic guides again – it was a real privilege to be able to learn from them and their intimate knowledge of the environment.

On Sunday we took a final safari and bus trip (in the beautifully painted ‘Magic’ bus) to the bear hides along the river which are used for the guests during salmon season. Tom has some amazing footage of bears sleeping outside the hides on the steps while the guests were inside – perhaps a bit too close for comfort, even for me!

Tom shared his remote camera footage with us back at the lodge – not only does he capture bears on camera but also otter, mink, wolves and mountain lions in the winter. On Saturday evening, he also shared the recent Chris Packham BBC documentary about the significance of the salmon in preserving the forest, part of which was filmed at the lodge and in the area. He is an inspirational character whose understated passion was infectious.

It was genuinely sad to say goodbye to the staff, the guides and to our fellow Brits who made the trip so unforgettable.  We are very fortunate to have sampled wilderness life with such a homogeneous group of people. 

We met Andy and Catherine for dinner at the hotel in Port Hardy and shared travel stories for one time before we packed for our ferry journey to Prince Rupert and they prepared to travel to Tofino (on the list for our next visit!).