Free Hats? - Ocean Falls, BC
Tennis anyone? - Ocean Falls, BC
Damn! - Ocean Falls, BC
Abandoned Apartments - Ocean Falls, BC
Northern Adventure, BC Ferry
Ocean Falls Sign
Ocean Falls Main Street
Ocean Falls Fire Department
Kayaks in morning light - Lowe Inlet, BC
A nice prawn catch - Lowe Inlet, BC
Reachin' for the fish - Lowe Inlet, BC
Grizzly going for salmon - Lowe Inlet, BC
Dinner! Lowe Inlet, BC
Just a little closer - Lowe Inlet, BC
Griz goes for it! - Lowe Inlet, BC
Black bear checks out Pete - Lowe Inlet, BC
Got one! - Lowe Inlet, BC
Leaving Prince Rupert
August 25
Greetings from Ocean Falls BC - beautiful but strange place. It was a pulp mill/ company town back in 1912 - even had the largest hotel on the west coast north of San Francisco in 1952. But then the mill closed and the company bulldozed about 90% the town and now you can freely explore what is left. There are still some large industrial buildings (fish cannery, power plant, etc.), and some large abandoned stores and apartment buildings. Also still lots of misc. stuff sitting around. Kind of looks like the entire population just dropped what they were doing and left town. Feels like walking around in some kind of apocalyptical future world with no people left. The surrounding wilderness is slowly retaking the town. There are a couple of fixed up houses sprinkled amongst the abandoned ones and the current population is about 40. For some reason there are also random items lying about, like a table full of baseball hats (see photo) & another one w/old shoes & boots. They appear to have been collected from the abandoned buildings and organized by the remaining residents. We haven’t figured out why yet. There is a huge dam/hydroelectric plant up the road which is old, but still operational and sends electricity to Bella Bella & Shearwater. Suprisingly, the town is set up nicely for visiting boaters (although there aren’t too many here) and there is internet service at the boathouse so we get to update you on what’s been going on since we left Prince Rupert. If you want to see more about the town check it out at www.oceanfalls.org.
Sam had to fly home from Prince Rupert so he could be ready for the start of school.
We saw him off at the Prince Rupert Airport, which is on an island across the harbor from the town. You have to take a bus, which drives onto a small car ferry for the ride out to the airport. There is just one commercial flight out in the morning and the airport staff rides out with you on the bus, so it was all pretty relaxed. This was Sams first time flying alone and he had to change planes in Vancouver and go through US Customs in SF. He did very well. Only hang up was a two hour delay in Vancouver so he was in the airport there for about five hours. We haven’t gotten any calls from Canadian Airport Security since then, so I guess he didn’t cause too much trouble there.
The boat feels very empty without our 3rd crew member. Sam really did a lot to help in the operation of the boat and onboard equipment (esp. the fishing gear) while he was here and he is definitely missed.
Our first stop after Rupert was Lowe Inlet. Another boater that we have been bumping into many times on our way north (Seas N Ticket) told us this was worth the stop. So we anchored the Seabird and kayaked over to the waterfall. It was high tide and there were hundreds of salmon all around us. They were jumping & swimming all around us, trying to make there way upstream to spawn. Unfortunately, no fishing was allowed at the falls – we could have literally scooped them out of the water by the dozens with a net. The best part was when they jumped up the waterfall. Amazing to see these little creatures power their way up the falls. They were jumping 6 and 8 feet in the air, sometimes thrashing their way up the rocks on either side of the falls in their frenzied efforts to get upstream. Unfortunately for them (but fortunately for us) there was another creature that knew where the salmon run and, sure enough, we finally saw our first bear. It was very entertaining to watch him try & catch a salmon. He would hang over the side of the rock, with a paw in the water trying to grab one. Occasionally one would jump out of the water, miss the waterfall & land on the rock right in front of him. Usually he would catch those but sometimes they would bounce back into the water. Anyway, when he finally got his fish, he would disappear into the woods. About 10 minutes later another bear would come out & start the fun again. The next morning we saw three bears standing around the falls waiting for the tide to come up – 2 black bears and a grizzly. We were the only ones in the inlet (the other 3 boats that we had shared the anchorage with had left) so we had the whole place to ourselves for the day. We were able to paddle our kayaks over to within 20 feet of where they were feeding. They looked hungry so we didn’t get too close. One time we were kayaking over & I was rushing over to this one spot to take a picture of a bear by the falls. I was so busy concentrating on him that I didn’t see the bear on the rock right in front of me. Good thing I know how to back paddle quickly. The bear did not seem afraid of us, in fact he stood his ground and looked right at us while sniffing the air to see what we were. It was a bit scary. Luckily they seemed more intent on catching salmon then trying to get to know us better. Pete & I went ashore at a grassy clearing to the side of the falls where there is a trail to the lake above the falls. We went about a hundred feet into the forest and then got kind of spooked. The path was heavily overgrown and led right past where the bears were hanging out and feeding. We thought it best not to get too close to them on their turf – especially with a big grizzly hanging around. Also there probably wasn’t a soul around for about 20 miles. We chose to skip the hike and explore the area from the water.
We ended up spending two nights at Lowe Inlet. The sun was out & it was quite nice. Every once in awhile we would jump in the Whaler or the kayaks & go watch the bears eat. Good entertainment. Aside from the black flies that attacked Pete, we thoroughly enjoyed it there.
Our next couple of days were purely travel days. The weather has been gray & rainy so aside from an occasional stop to fish (Pete caught two nice rock cod) we’ve been busy heading south. We have a new appreciation for the “inside” aspect of the inside passage here. Big storms can blow down from the Gulf of Alaska any time of the year. As we traveled over the past couple of days behind the coastal islands, it has been really bad on the ocean side, with storm warnings (40-50kts) and big seas (to 18 feet) on the outside coast, just a few miles from us. We listened on the VHF radio yesterday as the big BC Ferry, Northern Adventure (see photo), responded to a Mayday call from a sailboat who was caught out in Hecate Straights and had lost his rudder in a gale. We have had some wind and a lot of rain from the last series of storms, but we are mostly sheltered behind the small islands and channels that make up the coastline here. When it does start getting bad inside, you are never more than an hour or two from a protected anchorage.
Ocean Falls is a bit of a detour for us but we also heard (from Seas N Ticket) about a hot springs a bit further up the inlet. Might have to go check that out tomorrow.
Until next time…..
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