VOYAGE

Into the spirit world

British Columbia’s furthest reaches are home to the rare “spirit bears” of legend. Kate Lardy boards the 114ft Pacific Yellowfin to catch a glimpse

ever trust a black bear. This is the advice running through my mind as I watch a particularly large one dive under a log a few feet away from my perch on the riverbank. A grizzly bear, the apex predator round these N parts, needs only to assert its dominance; a black bear, on the other hand, is the underdog, falling below grizzlies, cougars and wolves in the hierarchy. It will fight to the death if feeling threatened, simply because it has to. With a hefty leap, 330 pounds of wet bear hoists itself out of the river and on to the log. This was its second dive for salmon, the first scoring it a wriggling fish. Coming up unsuccessful this time,

PHOTOGRAPHY: JASON VAN BRUGGEN; PACIFIC YELLOWFIN PACIFIC BRUGGEN; VAN JASON PHOTOGRAPHY: it gives our gaggle a stare and walks straight towards us. We hold

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only became known to the outside world islands, which are by and large devoid of in the early 20th century. The pale coat human habitation. When Griffinson When salmon comes from a recessive gene carried by announced we would spend the entire head upriver to both white and black bears, which must be first day camped by the river I was wary. spawn, many animals benefit, passed down by both parents to make a But now, with just the babbling water as including the white cub. There are only about 400 in the soundtrack, I feel only contentment. pine marten existence (though far fewer have actually After a period of calm our guide’s radio (below) been accounted for), spread thinly around crackles to life with a message from our collective breath as Colin Griffinson, this 27,000-square-mile rainforest that a spotter upriver that Ma’ah, or owner and captain of our host yacht Pacific edges the westernmost province of “grandmother”, is on her way towards us. Yellowfin, pulls out his bear spray and Canada. Three of these ghostly creatures As her name suggests, she is the eldest of readies it as the animal brushes past us. are known to fish the Kwa’a River where the bears here, perhaps 20 years old. She Griffinson later tells me it’s the first time we are waiting. The Gitga’at have named is no longer able to fish successfully but he has had to do this in years. He has stern them, and we patiently hope for scours the banks in front of us for leftovers. words with our Gitga’at First Nation guide Strawberry (who has a black cub), Ma’ah She will grace us with her presence twice (one of 14 tribes of the Tsimshian nation in or Warrior to make an appearance. today. In between her visits, black bears British Columbia) for allowing us to get too It’s a stark jump from hectic working take turns fishing the river, and on our hike close, even though no one in our life into the stillness of wildlife back to the tender we also catch sight of group minds. observation. Our phones lost Warrior napping in a tree. Witnessing bears fishing for contact with the outside world For the average bear-seeker in this salmon is pretty high on most soon after leaving the marina in temperate rainforest, the chances of people’s wish list, but we also Kitimat, as we entered the deep seeing a spirit bear are about 50 percent have a higher purpose: to spot fjord-like channels that run but Griffinson claims that Pacific Yellowfin the elusive Kermode or spirit between the densely forested ups that figure to 90 percent. “Everyone bear. Found only in the Great refers to the Yellowfin magic. A lot of Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, it’s THE BEAR people come on our boat simply because an all-white variation of the black bear, FROM WHERE? we have those odds,” he says. “We don’t like whose brown eyes show that it is no The First Nations have people jinxing themselves, though. You albino. A long-protected secret held by a theory about the don’t want to come out here and say ‘I have the aboriginal people of Canada (now spirit bear, according to to see this’ because I guarantee you won’t called First Nations), the Kermode bear Indigenous Tourism BC: see it. You’ll see everything else though.” “Goo-wee [Raven] made It’s more than just good karma that one in every 10 black blesses guests with exceptional viewings. bears white to remind Over his years of cruising the Great Bear people of a time when Rainforest in the salmon-running months glaciers covered this of September and October, Griffinson has land and how the people cultivated relationships with the First should be thankful of the Nations who have inhabited this land for lush and bountiful land.” millennia. As a result, he is one of just a handful of charter operators with permission to access the rivers where bears fill their bellies with Pacific salmon. This gets us to the right places at the right

The Gitga’at First times but there are still no guarantees. Nation calls this “Every day is different on the river,” he elderly spirit bear explains. “The players are all here, but we Ma’ah, meaning

PHOTOGRAPHY: LAUREN BIRCHALL; JASON VAN BRUGGEN; PACIFIC YELLOWFIN PACIFIC BRUGGEN; VAN JASON BIRCHALL; LAUREN PHOTOGRAPHY: grandmother have no clue what they are going to do when we show up.” This is nature at its rawest, and everything is a factor – such as whether it’s raining, how swiftly the rivers are running and whether wolves have turned up recently, scaring the bears away.

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To counteract these challenges Passage, it’s “whale soup” as humpbacks Griffinson employs a strategy of “playing lazily ingest krill all around us, diving like the river”. I see this in action as we drop a synchronized swimming team and anchor at Khutze, a playground for grizzly surfacing exactly seven minutes later with bears and the territory of the Kitasoo/ simultaneous puffs from their blowholes. Xai’xais First Nation (which, not At this time of year, they are getting their coincidentally, recently capped the length fill of food before a long migration south of vessels permitted here at a few inches to Hawaii for the As well as large longer than Pacific Yellowfin’s 114ft). breeding season. mammals in the Griffinson, at the wheel of the yacht’s We watch the water, on land you sturdy Weldcraft Ocean King tender, times humpbacks breach might also spot wildlife such as the slack tide perfectly, heading into the with spectacular bald eagles river just as the waters slow down enough splashes but the one for fish to be caught. We are soon treated to phenomenon that a mother grizzly and her three nearly fully eludes us is bubble-net grown cubs munching on the bank. We feeding (where several hover offshore, cameras clicking, until they whales surround a The water in the fjords is crystal get their fill and shuffle lazily out of view. school of herring and clear but its great On our way back downriver, the most trap them in a spiral of depth makes it eagle-eyed guest shouts “bear!” again, and air created by forcing appear gray yet another grizzly stares us down from the bubbles from their shore. “I can’t remember the last time I saw blowholes). Several five [grizzly] bears,” Griffinson says. This times during the trip, feels especially fortunate since the only we pile into the tender and drop other yacht at our anchorage had left that the hydrophone into the water to listen morning after two days with no sightings. for whale chatter, as this feeding is a As with the bears, whales are also likely co-ordinated effort that requires a lot of to get up close and personal with Pacific discussion. Three of the returning guests Yellowfin, surfacing right next to the yacht on board had witnessed it the year before, seemingly just to say “hi”. In Verney but the hydrophone stays stubbornly silent this time. she is still propelled by her original Atlas Humpbacks may be plentiful, but fin Imperial engines (truly a sight to behold whales are a rarity. However, we manage once you’re under way). to spot five of the 78ft behemoths as we It’s very easy to lose yourself out here. pass Sea Lion Rock, which is crammed Like the ever-present mist that swirls with Steller sea lions, the largest of the around the verdant hills, time is a fuzzy species. We are watching the whales to notion. With no mobile coverage and starboard when a huge pair suddenly only one working clock on board (a deliberate move), you have to think long and hard to work out whether it’s Thursday or Saturday. The yacht can get internet access by request, of course, The rainforest is but that would miss the point. The home to black surface 60ft away to port, heading exceptionally lucky – there’s just so much respite you get from being off-grid bears (above) as Two huge fin well as the more straight for us. Griffinson exclaims in that can happen at any moment in this perfectly complements this special part dominant grizzly whales suddenly surprise and turns the wheel hard to remote wilderness. of the planet, which also appears to be starboard as the world’s second-largest Fittingly for such an environment, lost in time. B surface 60ft animal disappears under our wooden Pacific Yellowfin is not your typical yacht. Pacific Yellowfin charters in Desolation hull. “I’ve never been that close to a fin The wooden boat has all the character Sound from June to August, from $98,200/ away, heading whale before,” he says, and I start to you would expect from a 1943 vessel, week, and in the Great Bear Rainforest in realize how many “firsts” or “first-time- originally built as a Junior Mine Planter September and October, from $98,200/six straight for us in-years” he is experiencing during my for the US Army. Now she sports four days and five nights, inclusive of flights from

PHOTOGRAPHY: PACIFIC YELLOWFIN; LAUREN BIRCHALL LAUREN YELLOWFIN; PACIFIC PHOTOGRAPHY: one and only trip. I don’t think I’m stately cabins hosting up to 12 guests, yet Vancouver. pacificyellowfin.com

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