We pulled up anchor in Bottleneck Inlet this morning at 7am and headed out into Finlayson Channel for a four-hour cruise up to Khutze Inlet — one of our favorite anchorages on the northern BC coast. We wanted to arrive at Khutze early enough to leave us with plenty of time to explore. We had favorable current the whole way, and dropped anchor around 11am. It was a beautiful, sunny day.
The head of Khutze is a stunning bay surrounded by snowcapped peaks with cascading waterfalls. It can be a tricky anchorage, as it’s deep with a steep sloping bottom coming off of a shoal.
Once everyone’s boat was anchored and secure, we hopped into our dinghies for a ride up the Khutze River. We almost always see bears here, and today did not disappoint.
After going as far as we could up the main fork of the river, we went around to the other side and headed in!
We got to a spot where Doug — who came in by canoe from the other boat anchored here (Surfbird) — was watching and photographing a couple brown bears way back in the meadow.
These aren’t the best shots (they were really far away, and down in the tall grass), but you get the idea:
Mike and Garry from Two’s Out, watching their depths:
We noticed something splashing strangely ahead, and turns out it was a seal getting itself onto a very large waterlogged log. Pretty soon, another one hopped up:
And then one more, making it three:
And finally a fourth…pretty soon the log was too deep to make it worthwhile.
Ithaka dinghy checking out one of the waterfalls:
Further up the other fork of the river we ran into Doug in his canoe, who stopped and generously chatted with us for a good while, telling us all sorts of interesting history about this area.
I snapped this photo of him as he paddled away…can’t go wrong with the backdrop!
This is Doug and his wife’s boat, Surfbird. They were in here at this same time last year when we visited.
Back on Airship, Kevin took the Mavic Mini up for a few aerial shots:
Dick, Bill, and Bill hosted happy hour on Ithaka tonight…they’ve got a great big back cockpit and the weather was amazing! What a great group we have this year (well, and every year so far!)
Tomorrow’s an early day (6am) and long (55nm) — we’ll cruise up to Lowe Inlet….working on our timing for crossing Dixon Entrance. Today, Saturday looks good. We’ll see if that holds!