We arrived at Bone Anchorage in Racey Inlet (on Princess Royal Island) right after 5pm yesterday, and immediately set out in the dinghies to go explore and look for bears. (We’re the only boats in here.) This is the spot our friends Dan and Eileen saw a spirit bear two summers ago, so we like to visit when we can in case one of these days we can add spirit bear to our list of animals.
There’s a stream at the head of the inlet, so we went there first…saw a couple of fish but no bears.
After floating there for a few minutes enjoying the sound of the water and the birds, we turned around and headed out just as a black bear was emerging from the woods on the north side of the inlet.
A beautiful fuzzy bear with a shiny coat…made its way down to the water and then promptly sat down in the water for what we assume was a cool off session, since today was quite warm (80F!)
The bear sat in the water for a minute and then was scratching its butt on the underwater rocks…super funny to watch. This is the face of that scratching:
Really love this direct look as it watched us watching it. Glad I brought my zoom lens with me!
The bear walked along the water’s edge for a bit, then back up toward the bushes back to where it had initially emerged.
It stood on a rock to reach the higher branches and was munching on some leaves, when a salmon jumped and made a big slap sound that I think startled the bear and it ran off into the bushes.
We continued around to the big waterfall coming from Archie Lake and dinghied up the river as far as we could:
What you can’t see in these photos is the enormous waterfalls around the corner to the left that flow mightily from Archie Lake. Luckily, Kevin took the drone up after we were back on Airship for some aerial video.
Missie and Russ came over and we all put together a delicious dinner of carne asada tacos and Mexican rice.
The sky was clear and dark before we went to bed, so I played around with what my iPhone could capture in the way of stars…not too bad for early in the evening. It’ll get much darker and the stars much brighter while I’m sleeping. 🙂
Dark shot of Melissa Lynn with stars:
Looking north (big dipper on the left):
This morning was quite foggy, but it was burning off fast by the time Kevin and Russ headed out to see if they could find some fish before we head to our next spot.
Russ caught one silver just as they were about to head in! Sweet!
Here’s a screenshot from Navionics to show you how roughly where this anchorage is…ALL the way at the end of Racey Inlet (about 4.5nm from the entrance):
