Knight Inlet Lodge would like to thank Martin Biddle for this excellent grizzly bear video of his past visits to Glendale Cove. The footage of the grizzly bears feeding on salmon and going about their daily life is well worth a look. Watch as grizzly cubs attempt to catch pink slamon in the Glendale River. Martin will be returning this fall on his third visit to Knight Inlet Lodge to watch our grizzly bears.Grizzly bear video

In the presence of bears
Water laps at the edges of the boat as the tide ebbs, the comforting, familiar sound of the Glendale River adds perfect a background to the scene before us.  I’m standing in the water knee-deep, holding onto my boatload of British tourists stationary in the river, keeping our position between Luke’s boat upstream and Shawn’s boat downstream. Our three boats float quietly together, all of us focused on the creature standing on the opposite riverbank. We’re watching a beautiful sub-adult female grizzly bear named Bonnie go about her business as if we weren’t there at all.

The sights and sounds can almost overwhelm the senses here some days, but this morning is calm and quiet; rain is softly falling in Glendale Cove, onto Bonnie and her viewers on this slightly soggy spring morning. All we can hear is distant bird song from the forest, the occasional bald eagle that flies over, calling out to us as it goes, camera shutters snapping away and Bonnie’s contented munching on the estuary sedge grass.

We sit quietly, the enthralled viewers barely moving a muscle as this little grizzly allows us to join her for breakfast. Bonnie tears off mouthful after mouthful of the sedge grass, occasionally flicking her intelligent brown eyes towards us, making sure we’re behaving ourselves. She pads almost silently through the long grass, out onto the stones of the riverbank and sits down, nose high in the air, reading the messages on the breeze.

The tide is quickly retreating from the river now, and reluctantly Luke, Shawn and I pull ourselves and our guests away from the beautiful little bear and start heading down river.  My guests make remarks about how they can’t believe we sat silently and watched her for almost half an hour, but then again it’s always surprising how fast the time goes in the presence of bears.

They know no concept of time as humans do – it’s meal time when they’re hungry and the tide is right, it’s play time when they feel playful and it’s nap time when they’re tired. Spring and summer for the bears are spent fattening up and possibly finding a mate when the time is right; fall is all about eating as many salmon brains and eggs as possible and winter is for hibernation. When they wake up the following spring, they awake as a slimmer, older and wiser version of their former selves.
At least one species of British Columbians have it figured out…

I’m back up here for my second season as a guide at Knight Inlet Lodge, and as always, Glendale Cove and all its inhabitants never cease to amaze. In my first 10-day shift of the season I’ve seen eight different grizzly bears, a handful of black bears, the rear end of a fast-retreating wolf, four transient killer whales, almost a hundred dolphins and on my last day of the shift, was lucky enough to find two humpback whales bubble feeding just outside of the cove – a rare sighting up here.

Rain or shine it’s beautiful here – this place enchants the people that visit with the birds and the beasts, the mountains, the ocean and the rainforest itself. I consider myself to be entirely addicted.
Words can’t do it justice – you’ll just have to come and see for yourselves.
Looking forwards to seeing you on the dock.
Moira

On Saturday, May 15, Knight Inlet Lodge hosted the the Vital Ground Organization at Beaufort Vineyard & Estate Winery here in the Comox Valley. The welcoming dinner prior to the groups flight into the lodge the next morning was a casual barbeque and wine tasting event that everyone enjoyed. The amazing selection of top quality, award winning wines that Beaufort presented to our group impressed everyone in attendance.

Susan and Jeff Vandermolen of Beaufort Winery were gracious enough to  open up both their home and winery to our group.  Without their help the event could not possibly have taken place. Thank you Susan and Jeff!

“Spring has arrived and the lodge is open.  Familiar furry faces are popping up everywhere and it’s shaping out to be a strong beginning to the season for us.  We’ve been open for a week now and already we’ve had multiple bear sightings in the estuary and the other morning we were woken up early by the blows of transient orcas in the estuary.  A small pod of four patrolled the cove twice in the day hopeful for the opportunity to feed on one of the many harbour seals and pacific white-sided dolphins that are abundant in the Inlet at this time of year.  We had an excellent view of the whales before they gave up their search in the cove and made their way back out of the inlet.

We are pleased to announce that the moms and cubs are very strong at the moment.  Lenora and her yearling cub Peanut have been regularily spotted in the estuary, and to our delight our famous white cub from last fall is out with her two siblings and impressive looking mother.  One small subadult has also been sighted feeding on the protein-rich sedge that’s coming up quickly in the estuary.”

This story contributed by Jamie Scarrow, Knight Inlet Lodge Head Naturalist and professioanl photgrapher. To see some of Jamie’s photos

Knight Inlet Lodge is excited to announce that we have had our first grizzly bear sighting of 2010. Tuesday, April 27 saw “peanut” and is mom return to Glendale Cove after a long winters nap. Enjoy these photos taken by Knight Inlet Lodge guide Luke Denbigh. spring is truly here at last! The photos were taken in the Glendale Cove estuary, Knight Inlet, British Columbia.

grizzly mom and cub, first bears of 2010

grizzly sow at Knight Inlet Lodge. the first bear to appear in 2010

scenic view from Vancouver Island Air floatplane

Vancouver Island Air has had the privilege of serving Knight Inlet Lodge since 1998. Ours floatplanes transport guests to Glendale Cove from around the world daily from May to October. Over two thousand guests a year fly in to view the Grizzly Bears and enjoy the many adventures and fine cuisine. Our inquiries as to their experience on the return flight are always met with high praise and excitement for the entire trip. We all enjoy hearing how many bears were spotted or other amazing wildlife, and even sometimes get to see some amazing photos!

DeHavilland Beaver

With just over 7 weeks until Knight Inlet Lodge opens things are really starting to happen! The first fuel barge of the year has been arranged, boats, lumber, supplies have been delivered to the barge facility for shipping and the first staff are at the lodge working on our fisheries project.  Interviews for the remaining staff positions are ongoing with an eye towards having the last of the staff in place by the end of this week.

Our bookings are looking very good for 2010 with September all but sold out already! For those of you wanting to come out in the fall to see the grizzly bears feeding on salmon take a look at our availability page www.grizzlytours.com/space as we still have some very good dates still open in October. A favourite time of year for many to visit Knight Inlet Lodge is the spring when Glendale Cove is probably at its prettiest with all the new green growth. Over the years many people who have been in the fall come back to experience spring grizzly bear viewing in Glendale Cove and Knight Inlet. So don’t despair if you see that September is sold out, we still have plenty of good dates open in 2010. See you at the lodge!

One of the things I enjoy the most about my job with Knight Inlet Lodge is all the interesting people that I get to meet. Now I say meet but what I really mean is correspond with as very rarely do I get to meet them face to face.

Recently I had the pleasure to “meet” a gentleman who worked as a timber cruiser in Knight Inlet during the mid to late 1950’s. Alan first contacted me to purchase one of our “stop the hunt” wrist bands mentioning that he had worked in Knight Inlet. He told me how they found that the grizzlies became used to their presence after a few weeks and would avoid the crew, they knew there were lots of bears around from the bear scat etc, but they would rarely see a grizzly. After awhile the crew stopped carrying firearms to work as they no longer felt threatened by the grizzlies.  I found this unsolicited comment very interesting as it so closely mirrors what we find with the grizzly bears of Glendale Cove today. The fact that they regularly used the grizzly bears trails to travel in the forest gives you an idea as to their comfort level. As Alan commented the crew quickly figured out that the grizzlies knew the easiest way through the forest.

Alan is also the first person I have ever met that knew Jim & Loretta Stanton, well known Knight Inlet pioneers whose experiences were chronicled in the book “Grizzlies in my backyard”. Alan remembers Jim Stanton claiming that he could recognize the individual bears of Knight Inlet by sight, a most impressive ability to say the least.

All in all it has been an interesting couple of weeks learning some real first hand history of Knight Inlet. Alan has kindly consented to my sharing this information in a blog, hopefully with more to follow.

This story and pictures are compliments of Mike and June,  guests in mid August of 2009. They are returning for a second visit in September of 2010.

The bird in the first picture was on the back of the mum and annoying her, each time she made it move, it just flew straight back, pecking at her.

grizzly bear sow with cub

Eventually it flew off with the cub watching it closely

grizzly bear sow and cub

It landed on a rock close by and the cub thought it would take revenge for mum, but each time it tried to get up on the rock it slipped down again. The bird totally ignored the cub, knowing full well that it could not be reached.

grizzly bear cub, Glendale Cove, Knight Inlet

It is stories like this that really make you wonder how people could ever want to hunt this magnificent animals. Please go to this story to see a blog on what you can do help

Help save the grizzly bears of British Columbia

Knight Inlet Lodge is asking everyone to sign this unique petition asking the Province of British Columbia to stop the hunting of Grizzly Bears. This link will allow you to add your name to the rapidly growing list of people that do not want grizzly bear hunting in B.C. Stop the hunt petition While there is a donation request on the second part of this site it is not necessary to donate for your name to be added to the petition.

Please help us Stop the Hunt!