We opted for a 7 am breakfast and were the only ones up early but it enabled us to get to know the owner Dan who prepared our scrambled egg. He had been a manager in the lumber industry and built the house himself - he was a real individual with a wicked sense of humour.
Breakfast over we got ready for our bear viewing trip - we were being collected from Hidden Cove's own dock at 0830. The day dawned cool but it didn't take long to warm up. We set off with 10 others on a small motor boat, called Grizzly Bear, on the 2 hour trip to Knight Inlet. Enroute we were offered hot drinks and muffins - still full from breakfast we declined the latter! Tide Rip, the organising company had another boat also going on the trip called Kermode (spirit bear) which had some fuel problems and meant when we arrived at a now very warm Knight Inlet to transfer to the flat bottomed skiffs our boat returned part way down the inlet to collect our fellow tourists while Kermode was mended in time for the return trip. We were told due to the disruption we would stay late - but to be honest no ones day was spoiled and no one really noticed the difficulties due to the hospitality from Pascale, the English guide, girl friday and wildlife/whale expert and Lyndsey the captain and owner, with his father, of the company.
On the skiffs we headed up the shallow river channel looking for bears - and we were soon rewarded with two juvenile females, now surviving on their own, feeding on salmon and moving through the river channel.
A little further up the channel we saw a mum feeding and playing with her two cubs, born this year, - watching them balancing on logs, playing and eating was captivating. Not long after we saw another mother with 18 month old cubs similarly captivating - time just flew. As we were experiencing a high high tide we were able to go further up the channel than they had been this season but further progress was thwarted by a large tree across the channel. We returned to the dock for a lovely buffet lunch before returning for one final look up the river channel - the tide was falling so we couldn't go as far this time. It was cool and quite eerie, not least because of the sound of ravens calling - no bears sadly but we did see, a Cooper's hawk, bald eagles and a hollow in the ground that a bear had made and would have used as a day bed. We set off back to Hidden Cove about 4pm arriving at 6.10pm. As we turned out of the inlet Lyndsey showed us the place of his best moment in 12 years of doing these trips - seeing a cougar lying out on top of a rock basking in June (2013) sunshine. Thanks to his iPhone he snapped the moment and was able to share it - it was truly a great once in a life time picture! On our journey back we saw seals, surf scoters, meurlets and cormorants. We also picked our way through logs and debris which had fallen into the inlet from several landslides which had recently occurred along it - pine trees, shallow soil and rain can be a toxic mix and a shipping hazard! Our last surprise came as we entered Hidden Cove - a large black bear foraging on the shoreline for crabs - we watched him for several minutes before tying up and disembarking - a great day - and a lovely home cooked dinner followed before we prepared for tomorrow's whale watching trip.