Originally posted on National Geographic 6/11/2013: http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/11/gyre-expedition-all-aboard/ All Aboard – Our expedition is called Gyre. Our route is from Seward, Alaska west toward Kodiak, stopping at several places along the way, bearing witness, perhaps witnessing bears, and talking trash. It’s a uniquely creative approach to the issue of plastic garbage washing up on the world’s remotest […]
Bears
Last Day: Grizzly Stuff
All in all, this is been a lovely trip on a magic-carpet of a boat that got us easily and safely in and out of an awe-inspiring wilderness, among awe-inspiring creatures. More info about Canadian grizzly bear conservation can be found at: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/publications/reports/2010/a-grizzly-challenge-ensuring-a-future-for-albertas-threatened-grizzlies/ http://www.pacificwild.org/ http://www.blurb.com/books/1283013 And a petition opposing hunting Grizzly Bears in British Columbia: […]
Day 6: Highpoint of the Trip
Day 6 – Morning afforded our last—and most intimate—viewing of a bear that Greg Palmer has known since she was a cub. Now with two cubs of her own, she allowed us to sit in the boat not 50 feet from her and her young ones. Mostly, she utterly ignored us. Her concern was focused […]
Day 5: Khutzeymateen Inlet
Day 5 – Bears have replaced breakfast. Having anchored at Kwinamass, we went to the estuary early in our inflatable boat. A bear was grazing sedges on the left bank. It walked out on a big fallen tree, then entered the water and swam across the river mouth. For over an hour we watched it […]
Day 4: Bear Conservation
Day 4 – Kayaking has become breakfast, followed by food on the boat. Mid-morning, we visited a lighthouse station, still manned, on a small gull-covered isle named Green Island. These seemed all to be Glaucous-winged Gulls, and we found two nests. The island also hosted scarlet-legged Pigeon Guillemots and Black Oystercatchers, with a few […]
Trip on Bluewater Adventures’ Island Odyssey to Khutzeymateen Inlet, British Columbia
Day 1 – After a manic six months over-occupied with two book launches, perhaps a hundred interviews, and our TV show launches, this trip is mainly a rare chance to simply unwind. I’ve been invited as a guest by Bluewater Adventures owner Randy Burke and bear expert Barrie Gilbert, who in the early 1970s was […]