Our Mother Goose flotilla was thoroughly enjoying our marine mammal sightings, not to mention the multitude of birds everywhere, when we really started to take notice of the changing landscape. As we rounded a corner in Mathieson Channel, the dense tree-filled hills began to soar toward the sky and sheer rock faces protruded from the sea as if thrust upward by Poseidon himself. They lined the channel, towering over us like sentinels guarding the entrance to the beauty that lay beyond. It is amazing that life can exist on these sheer rock faces, but somehow trees manage to find enough room to squeeze in their roots and soak up enough minerals to survive. On the high peaks, the mountain goats are able to show off their agility by grazing along these cliffs which seem utterly impossible to find a footing.
The accumulated water trickling down one the giant granite faces amassed near the bottom into an enormous water fall, creating the very picturesque scene that is known as Kynoch Falls. The steep faces of the 3000 foot peaks plunge from the mountaintops down to the water’s edge and beyond. They channels we cruised were so deep, and the edges so sheer, that we could touch our bows to the walls and still be in over a hundred feet of water. Up close, the winds gusting off the falls are so powerful they coat everything with a fine mist. Deception idled in front of the falls and called in each boat one by one so we could get a picture of the various crews and their respective boats in front of beautiful Kynoch Falls.
That evening an appetizer and cocktail hour was held on Deception. The salon was filled with conversations of the day’s travels and the consensus was that there weren’t enough descriptors to accurately portray to beauty and dominance of the area. It was heartwarming to hear the excitement in people’s voices and watching them use grand gestures, attempting to take in all that they had experienced.
The evening was far from over as we ended Deception’s appetizer hour to take a dinghy tour up a nearby river. We kept our voices quiet in hopes of sneaking up on the wildlife; after all, they are not accustomed to seeing humans are very skittish. As we rounded the curved entrance to the river, Jordan spotted what he thought was a black bear on the grassy meadow just outside the dense rainforest tree line. He did find us a bear, only it was a brown bear! We had spotted our first brown bear! Bears have extremely good senses of smell and hearing but have poor eye sight, so we kept our voices low and hoped we were downwind so that we could get a closer look. The brown bear stood up on its two hind legs to get a better idea of its surroundings – it knew we were near. It lingered for a few moments, deciding whether or not we were a threat before erring on the side of caution and headed into the protection of the forest. We were overwhelmed with excitement and continued our way up deeper into the rainforest. This area has much more dense growth and the trees are swaddled with moss due to the increased rainfall. The current picked up the further we traveled up the river and fallen trees created an aquatic obstacle course for our dinghies. Eventually we reached a point where the rapids were picking up and the depth was too shallow for our dinghies to safely pass, so we made a U-turn, lifted our motors, and floated back down from whence we came. It was incredibly peaceful to float through this gorgeous forest, with the unknown living just beyond the shoreline. As we returned back down to where the forest opened into a meadow, the brown bear had returned to finish its dinner and we were able to catch another look. This time we were much quieter without our motors to startle it. We used our oars to maneuver around the corner into the bay and as we did the Crees spotted a black bear emerge from the forest. It is a rare sight to see both black and brown bear together, as the larger brown bear will usually chase the black bear off; the exceptions are further north and on the mainland in areas where food is plentiful and there is no need for such territorial behavior. In this situation, as soon as the black bear saw the brown bear, it high-tailed it back into the forest. After several minutes, and some pacing back and forth, the brown bear retreated back into the forest. We adjourned our dinghy tour for the evening, very content with the remarkable events of the day which have left an indelible impression in our memories. The majesty of today’s travels was a humbling reminder that we are simply visitors to nature’s phenomenal wonderland.
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