Aristazabal Island - Day 1, 2
And some clever quip...
Day 1 - Flight to
Bella Bella
I
wasn't so keen on getting up at 5
something in the morning but
the idea of being on the water before lunch was pretty
attractive. I caught a cab to the south terminal and met Marilyn
and Edwina in the lineup to check in our baggage. Something near
8am rolls around and we are on board a shorts 360 flying to Port
Hardy. Flying over the island is beautiful - there are many
ridges I would love to climb - but water is our goal today. As we
go
further north, the clouds start to fill the valleys. By the time
we get into Hardy, we have punched through two cloud layers. When
we get on the ground, we find out Bella Bella is thick with fog and the
plane won't be leaving until they have visibility at Bella Bella.
Once inside the terminal, we met Pam - the fourth guest flying up to
meet the boat. The Port Hardy terminal is quite large so passing
the time wasn't bad - we watched as float plane after float plane left
filled with fisherman and their rods. Soon enough we got the call
- the airport at Bella Bella was clear and we were going.
The
ride to Bella Bella is quite short (45
minuets?) but you can tell you really have left the grid. No
roads, no towns almost no boats. We flew over the Island group
that makes up the Hakai Provincial Recreation Area and then descended
into Bella Bella. Several hours late, we were glad to see the
boat.
On board, we got
our room
assignments (this was the only trip of the
summer that wasn't fully booked so we got the luxury of extra bunks to
spread out), and did the safety training. We pulled anchor and
headed North - further from civilization. Our overnight stop was
Berry Inlet - a protected bay on the end of the Don Peninsula - a bay
we shared with a sport fishing camp.
We went out for a kayak around they bay and discovered the joy of
fishing camps - empty bait bags in the water, and other trash in the
water. We kayaked out to Fisher Point and played around on
shore. We took a short walk inland to try and see some totem
poles but the forest was way to thick to penetrate.
After a good day kayaking, we returned to the boat, had a great dinner,
and slept like you only can on a boat.
Day 2 - Berry Inlet
We have to go North. There is a low tide this morning so
Jan pulls anchor before I got up (not hard to do) and we power over to
Day point on the bottom end of Price Island.
Inter tidal at Day Point
Being the last point of land next to the region that feeds
seaforth channel, this area gets a lot of current flow. The
protected bay isn't exposed to the ocean storms and was flat enough
that a fully loaded Zodiac wasn 't worrisome. As we pushed up
next to the rocks, Jan and Steve would reach down and pull out an
animal. Steve would explain how it lived and where it fit in the
ecosystem.
We pushed deeper
into the
channel, but the bottom conditions changed. Instead of rocky, we
found silt and eel grass. We land and poked around the rocks, but
the muddy bottom significantly limited life's possibilities.
Back on board the boat, we sailed North to Kitasu bay. We brought
the Red Sea Urchin with us for the planned sushi night (apparently the
sex bits inside are good eating), and the sea Urchin didn't mind posing
a bit for me. The shell bit in the bottom is called Aristotle's
Lantern - it's where food (kelp and other bottom food) makes it way
into the animal.
Kayaking at Kitasu Bay
We
arrived in Kitasu bay in the
early afternoon and got the kayaks in
the water to take advantage of the beautiful sunny day. We
kayaked
around the islands and up a small river, learning just how cow like a
double ocean kayak maneuvers in shallow, fast running water. Out
in an open bay, we found thousands of moon jellies were congregating at
the surface. In some places you couldn't fit a paddle between
them. To the surprise of Naturalist Steve, we saw Dogfish
swimming and feeding on these jellies.
While we were out kayaking, Mike and Ryan had loaded the zodiac and
driven dinner to a small beach.
They set up a grill for a recently caught salmon which complemented the
Indian themed meal (complete with hand made samosas) nicely.
Eating on the beach at sunset was simply wonderful.
After dinner (and sunset), we got back in the kayaks and paddled back
to the boat. We watched the stars - stars you never see in the
city, and the wide band of milky way.
Tags: sea urchin(3), BC fauna(3), beach(2), crab(2), sea star(2), abstract(2)
From: John Harvey Photo > Aristazabal Island > Aristazabal Island - Day 1, 2
From: John Harvey Photo > John's Overnight Page > Aristazabal Island > Aristazabal Island - Day 1, 2
Last Modified Saturday, January 21st, 2023 at 23:41:12 Edit
Copyright and Contact Information.
