We’re on the move again, headed for Colby Bay, on Principe Channel.  Knowing how rough the seas can get rounding the southern end of McCauley Island, we left early this morning.  The seas are flat calm, and surprisingly, there’s no fog.  Hurray!   We got across Principe Channel just ahead of the wind picking up.  Early bird gets the worm.

We got to Colby early enough for me to get a paddle in.  Sadly, the only thing I found to photograph was this interesting twisted tree….

 

….and this colorful jellyfish.

On the bright side, however, I did get a good workout.

There are several pretty little creeks at the head of Newcombe Harbour. 

 

 

 

That’s where I finally found mergansers, more than I’ve found anywhere else this summer.  They were very wary, so I didn’t dare get too close.

 

 

 

 

And, I came across this spotted sandpiper.  I couldn’t find him in my Audubon Society Field Guide, so he shall remain nameless.

 

 

 

This Steller’s jay was hopping along the shore, looking for goodies.

 

These eagles were hoping to spot a salmon, but I’m afraid they’re going to have a long wait, as salmon are pretty scarce this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I was scanning the distant shoreline, I spotted what I thought was a big log with stubby branches.  To my surprise, when I zoomed in, I found some honkers playing peek-a-boo.

 

The weather is good for traveling this morning, so we decide to move down Petrel Channel, just 13 miles, to Newcombe Harbour.

As we entered Newcombe, we saw commercial crab traps, at least 50 of them, blanketing the whole anchorage.  What a disappointment.  No wonder crabs are getting more and more scarce.

 

 

 

 

Once again we’re blessed with great traveling conditions, as we head up to the top end of Grenville Channel, through Ogden Channel, and down Petrel Channel, where we anchored in our usual spot in Captain Cove.

 

There are always lots of seagulls at Captain Cove, and this year was no exception.  These gals were so perfectly spaced on this log that they looked like a chorus line.

 

I spotted this kingfisher way up in a tree doing some feather maintenance.

 

 

 

 

I paddled up the creek at the head of Captain Cove one morning, hoping to spot some bears.  There weren’t any bears this year, but I did find this eagle.

 

This morning I set out early for the waterfalls at Brodie Lake.  The sun was just coming up over the mountains by the time I got to the falls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spotted this eagle perched in a nearby tree.

 

He didn’t hang around long, however.

 

 

The water was flat calm and reflected interesting patterns in the rock that lines the shore. 

 

Some of the patterns, when rotated 90 degrees, looked like totems.

 

 

This morning I headed for the creek at the head of the anchorage, hoping to find mergansers, like last year.  Mergansers have been so scarce this year.  I miss the little guys.

Well, I didn’t get very far, when I heard Al calling me on my VHF.  “There are thousands of jellyfish surrounding the boat, so I can’t run the generator.  Let me know if there are jellyfish up at the creek.  We may have to move up there to run the generator.”  So, I continued paddling toward the creek.  It wasn’t long before I was surrounded by jellyfish also. 

 

I called Al to give him the bad news, and told him they’d probably be gone with the tide, which, luckily, they were.  We didn’t want to wind up with these guys clogging our generator intake.

On my way back to the boat I spotted this pair of loons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With so little wildlife around Verney Falls, we’ve decided to head for Klewnuggit this morning, just a  2-hour run up Grenville Channel.  The wind was light and we had the current going with us the whole way.  As usual, we didn’t find any boats anchored in Klewnuggit.  Lovely.

 

 

In past years, we’ve enjoyed watching bears here catch salmon as they go up the falls.  This year there are so few salmon jumping that the bears haven’t bothered showing up. 

I got up early this morning hoping to find some mergansers.  The only mergansers I found, however, were flying overhead, on their way to the lake.  I did manage a couple of nice shots of the falls though.

 

Since there wasn’t much action going on at the falls, I headed for the shoreline, hoping to find something to photograph.

While looking for sea stars, or anemones, I spotted this robin scouring the rocks, looking for breakfast.

He seemed to be a very serious fellow, too busy to be bothered by tourists.

 

So, I left Mr. Robin to his worms and went in search of more willing subjects, like this pair of eagles I spotted way up near the top of a tree.

 

 

They didn’t hang around long, so I headed across to the sunny side of the inlet, where I spotted some interesting little islets.  As I poked along the rocky shore, I spotted whole colonies of  anemones, some underwater, and some already exposed by the low tide.

 

So far, I hadn’t spotted any sea urchins.  But, just as I was starting to feel less anxious about getting too close to shore for fear of being punctured by a sea urchin, around the next rocky point I found big piles of sea urchins.  And, just under the surface of the water I spotted hundreds of baby sea urchins as well.  Just goes to show that you can never let your guard down.

 

This greater yellowlegs was busy looking for low tide breakfast delights.

 

This morning we’re underway at 0530 hrs, headed for Hartley Bay, where we’ll top off our fuel and water tanks again.  Our tanks aren’t down much, but it’s our last chance to pick up water and fuel for the next month. 

We had an easy trip, with flat water and clear skies all the way to Hartley Bay.  Al was hating paying the high price for diesel ($5.28/gallon).  Luckily, we only took on 44 gallons.

With our tanks topped off, we headed to Lowe Inet, up Grenville Channel.  The wind had come up a bit, making the seas a bit lumpy.  Thankfully, we didn’t have too far to go.  The “Volendam”, a Holland America cruise ship, was headed up Grenville also, on their way to Alaska.

There was just one sailboat anchored in front of Verney Falls, in Lowe Inlet, which was a nice surprise.  This place is very popular, because of the falls, and is usually very busy. 

Even though it rained almost non-stop, I didn’t let it stop me from kayaking.  What almost did stop me, however, were the seals that have a haul-out rock just a couple of hundred feet from where we anchored.  The seals have young pups this time of year.  They are very protective of the new pups, so they have sentries patrolling the surrounding waters, harrassing any intruders, namely me.  They were a bit intimidating last year, but nothing like this year.  Their boundaries for the rookery seem to have moved out farther afield, encompassing the whole inlet.

On the first day, I managed to slip through without being accosted.  They must have been busy having breakfast.  I made it to the north shore, where I spotted this eagle busy digging up moss from this tree, for what purpose, I have no idea.

 

 

 

Then, when he spotted me, he flew to another tree, hoping to lose me.

 

 

 

By now, I was passed the sea lion rookery and into the river, hoping I’d slipped the sentries.  I spotted this fallen tree that I remembered from last year, in which the seagulls have taken up residency. 

 

 

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something slowly moving in the sedge.  When I zoomed in with my camera, I discovered it was a grizzly bear grazing as contentedly as a cow.  Not wanting to disturb his contentment, I stayed at what I hoped was a safe distance.

 

 

 

 

 

I sat for what seemed like hours trying to get a decent photo, barely breathing, for fear the grizzly would see me, .  Unfortunately, he was just too far away, and I was just too scared to get any closer.  At one point he raised his head, sniffing the air.  I was sure I’d been discovered.  

 

But then,  he just went back to chewing.

 

 

And, at one point, a little head popped up just beyond the grizzly.  That’s when I realized this was a momma grizzly!  When the cub lost track of his momma, he’d stand up on his hind legs trying to locate her in the tall sedge.  Sadly, I was never able to get a shot of the cub.  And, thankfully, momma never discovered my presence.  Or, maybe she was enjoying the sedge so much she couldn’t be bothered with me.

When the grizzly finally disappeared into the sedge for good, I headed back to the boat, hoping to sneak passed the rookery by hugging the shore.  But, I didn’t get far before one of the seal sentries headed after me, surfacing just a few feet from me and then pounding the water with his massive body.  When I called Al on my VHF to tell him I couldn’t get back to the boat because of these bullies, he said, “Just hit them with your paddle.”  My hero.  He obviously hasn’t had a close-up encounter with a 300 lb. seal while sitting on an inflatable kayak that weighs just 17 pounds and has just 6 inches of freeboard.  These seals have teeth like wolves and weigh hundreds of pounds, and he wants me to hit them with my carbon fiber paddle? 

Well, if I didn’t want to spend the night on my kayak, I had no choice but to set out for the boat again.  I hugged the shoreline as far as I could, and then headed across to the boat.  I got about 50 feet, when I could sense something behind me.  When I turned to look, I was looking into the angry eyes of a really big guy not more than 5 feet from my stern.  He looked like he was getting ready to hop aboard.   I yelled at him, “Get away!!!!”  And then I slapped the water with my paddle a few times.  As if mocking me, he slapped the water with his huge body, drenching me, and then dove under me.  I expected him to come up under me and toss me like a beach ball.  But, after a few more threatening slaps, he disappeared, while I paddled like mad for the boat.  I have since learned that slapping the water with my paddle was the worst thing I could have done.  Instead, I should have sat quietly, waiting for him to lose interest.  Easier said than done.

I took these photos of the seals from the safety of the boat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day was a super high tide.  Al wanted to check out the river to see how far up he could get in the dinghy.  So, I timed my paddle for high tide also and followed him up the river, hoping he might be able to rescue me if I had another encounter with the seals. 

The scenery up the river is really beautiful, with waterfalls everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we got as far as we could on the main channel, we headed off into one of the many extremely narrow, shallow canals that crisscross the sedge grass.  This is where the grizzlies hang out all day, wandering among the tall sedge, searching for the tastiest patches.  It all looks the same to me, but the grizzly apparently is a sedge grass connoisseur.  And, there are hundreds of acres of sedge to sample.  I would not have ventured here by myself.

 

As we slowly made our way through the canal, keeping our eyes peeled for grizzlies, Al suddenly stopped up ahead of me and pointed at something.  I looked and looked and coudn’t see any bears, so I slowly paddled toward him.  That’s when I saw a goldeneye fishing just ahead of him.

 

 

 

 

He was so cute, and so brave.  Usually, you couldn’t get within 100 feet of one of these guys.  But, here he was paddling along, as close as 15 feet ahead of us at times.  We followed him for about 20 minutes, and then, he turned around and looked at us, as if to say, “This has been interesting guys, but enough is enough already.”  And, off he flew, looking for a little privacy.

We saw beautiful wildflowers growing among the sedge.

 

 

 

But, luckily, or unluckily, however you want to look at it, we didn’t find any grizzlies.

Al, having seen enough sedge and wildflowers for one day, decided to head back to the boat.  I followed him just until we got out of the sedge canal, and then slowly paddled along the shore, looking for photo ops.  I noticed a flock of very small birds flitting about the branches of a nearby tree.  When I zoomed in on one of them that landed somewhat nearby, I couldn’t make out what kind of bird it was, but I shot it anyway, thinking it’s probably a sparrow of some sort.

 

 

When I got back to the boat and downloaded to my computer, I discovered that what I thought was just a sparrow, was a cedar waxwing, an exquisite bird I’ve never seen before.

I spotted this eagle early one morning, just before the sun came up.

Al wanted to see if there were still crabs here, so he put his trap in to check it out.  Well, there was one crab. 

In the past, we’d have as many as 10 crabs in the trap.  The commercial fishermen have really cleaned this place out.