April 4
This morning I am returning to my first hard-core wild life photography trip back in September 2015. My friend Kelly and I flew to Terrace B.C and then were taken by van to Kitimat and boarded the Ocean Light ll, a seventy foot sailboat.
We spent a week on the boat in the Davis Straight. It took day’s travel each way to reach Gribbell Island. Gribbell is uninhabited and one of the best places to see the Spirit Bear. The Spirit Bear is basically a blond black bear and it is believed there are only 400 in the world, most in Canada.
Once we reached the island, we moored offshore. Each morning at 7:30 am we would get in a zodiac and go to shore. It was then a 30 to 45 minute hike through the rainforest to a viewing spot on a creek. We would spend the day waiting and photographing the bears that would come along fishing for salmon. We would head back at dusk.
Some days were active, others involved a lot of sitting and waiting. We ended up wearing rubber gloves as our hand as they were bloody after the first day from little bug bites. We were very fortunate and only had a little rain. The group that followed us the next week had steady rain for six days.
And did I mention that Kelly and I share a 6 foot by 5 foot berth with bunk beds. And the passengers included six large men, five of who snored loudly and one poor lady. It gave me a bit of a sense of what nature photographers do to get their shots.
Looking back, it was an truly an amazing week.
Stay well !
