Great Bear Rainforest captivates
Find adventure aboard the MV Swell in B.C.’s Great Bear Rainforest
“Dinner will be delayed. We have a mother bear and three cubs on the shoreline. Starboard.”
The announcement from Capt. Steve Kempton on the MV Swell interrupted some passengers just about to settle in for a pre-dinner nap, while others enjoyed a book and the sublime scenery viewed from the top deck’s coveted couch.
Every day on our cruise through what officially became known as the Great Bear Rainforest in 2016, we’d hear similar announcements, courtesy of our eagle-eyed naturalists on board. One day it was Dall porpoises entertaining us with their acrobatics along the bow.
Another day breaching or spraying humpback whales gave us a show in Squally Channel. Our pre-dinner appetizer one afternoon had us gathered on the deck to watch a grizzly munching on sedge grass on the shore’s edge.
Such is the rarefied life on board the MV Swell. We’d launched from Kitimat, B.C., and over five days plied our way through the tentacles of channels in the Great Bear Rainforest, mooring in calm coves for a day and then taking the skiffs into peaceful estuaries where more bears, birds, moose and wolverines roamed.
We didn’t always see them, but you felt they just might be watching us.
We were primed to spot grizzly and black bears, Pacific Coast wolves, moose, eagles, dolphins and whales. But at the top of nearly everyone’s list was the elusive and rare white Kermode bear, also known as the spirit bear.
It’s unique to this region, located north of Vancouver Island and south of the Alaska panhandle.
What I was not prepared for was the sheer size and ethereal beauty of the towering snow-capped peaks all around us as we chugged through glaciated fjords, often enshrouded in delicate tendrils of mist.
Waking up on board the Swell every day, you couldn’t help but feel minuscule in the immense landscape. We were also some of the few people lucky enough to visit this biodiverse old-growth forest that has been the lifeblood and home to the First Nations who it is believed have lived here for more than 10,000 years.
The comfortably retrofitted MV Swell, a tugboat that once plied the coast as a workaday vessel, was our base camp. It was not lost on any of the 12 guests that we were meandering through what is the planet’s largest intact temperate coastal
rainforest, a rugged and complicated jigsaw puzzle that is part of B.C’s north-central coastline.
No one was ever disappointed that a meal would be delayed because of a spontaneous wildlife sighting. Even though we’d have to wait awhile to eat the delicious food prepared by on-board chef Lila Ruzicka, it meant satisfying our appetite to glimpse some of the many creatures in this sublime slice of Canadian paradise. We’d happily go hungry temporarily.
During the wildlife announcements, we’d rush out to the deck with our binoculars and cameras and scan the coastline. One late afternoon, we hopped into skiffs and quietly cruised into an estuary where a crew member thought he might have spotted a wolf. Rubber boots always at the ready on the back deck for such an event, we jetted off. On this outing, we missed seeing the elusive wolf, which may have disappeared into the trees, but we did see plenty of fresh bear scat and a profusion of purple lupines blowing in the breeze.
On our final night, we gathered as a group in the dining room to talk about all of the wonderful things we’d seen, heard or experienced over the past five days.
Sherry Kirkvold, one of the naturalists, passed a feather around to each person. As we each held the feather, we took turns saying what has been our most memorable or special moment.
It wasn’t easy to pick just one. Here are five unforgettable experiences in the Great Bear Rainforest
FRESH CRAB AND SPOT PRAWNS
Under the light of the moon, a couple of us hopped in a skiff with naturalist Greg Shea and captain- in-training Bryden Smith. We set off with the amber lights of the Swell in the distance, a postcard perfect scene that I could never get enough of. We dropped a couple of crab traps, hoping to catch a few to hand over to Chef Lila. The next morning, there were a couple of crabs in the trap — but one would have to be returned because it was a female filled with eggs. The one crab was plenty for Chef Lila to resourcefully serve up delicious appetizer later that day. On another day, a couple of the crew went out in search of a local fishing boat selling spot prawns. Successful, they returned and the delicacies, only available in May and early June, were became the topping of a delicately flavoured soup.
NATURE’S SPA
The on-board hot tub was a nice luxury to have waiting at the end of an adventurous day. But getting a relaxing lavender hair wash and scalp massage courtesy of naturalist Sherry Kirkvold’s “Sherry’s Shampoo Shop” was an unexpected treat in this rough landscape. Taking the skiff over to Shearwater Hot Springs, a natural pool tucked amid trees on a rocky shoreline, we shimmied into steamy waters that worked wonders on our already relaxed bodies. On another day, we enjoyed a misty facial from our kayaks after paddling up to a cascading waterfall — just one of dozens of spouting out of the mountains all around us.
FINDING
A BEAR’S HIDEOUT
Anchored at Kewasas, we headed out in the skiff and headed to the shore of a peaceful estuary. The purple lupines were in full bloom as we followed naturalist Greg Shea through the underbrush of some giant cedar trees. We came upon an area of flattened grass and plants and Shea points out a bear’s “daybed.” It’s likely the bear had recently been there, perhaps cooling off in the shade and taking a break from foraging for food. Some of us took turns laying in the daybed — well, just to see how it felt and to say that we did.
SURROUNDED BY SEA LIONS
Our destination one day was a trip out to Ashdown Island, famed for the Stellar sea lions that hang out on the big rock. Expecting to see just a few, we came upon dozens and dozen of the roly-poly and loudly barking mammals. Some were sunning themselves on the rock while others repeatedly dove into the water to swim and catch fish. We could have reached out and touched many of them ( but we didn’t because they can bite!) when they came close to the boat.
PICNICS ON THE BEACH
Every meal in the MV Swell’s cosy dining room was unforgettable. But two meals stand out for their location: a wine-and-cheese party on a beach, where the snacks decorated a massive piece of driftwood; and, a picnic on the beach at stunning Kitlope Lake. There, Ruzicka laid out a buffet of salads and sandwiches while we followed the paw prints of a wolf and grizzly bear and got to see a moose lope down the river.