Heading South, Chasing Summer: Aug 2 – Aug 10, 2012



Verney Falls, Lowe Inlet

A 6 AM Ketchikan departure - in the rain, 54 degrees, our standard operating  weather  (SOW) while we have been in Alaska – and ten hours later we cross the border, face down customs and arrive  back in Prince Rupert, BC.  Rainy and 58 degrees – oh, it is getting warmer.  But I am undeterred – this is August after all, so out come the summer clothes which were stored under the carpet, beneath the floorboards deep in the bilge.  Now, however, they are ready to deploy at a moment’s notice – like our fire extinguishers or flares, ready, but never really necessary.

We are eager to explore some anchorages we missed on the way up the coast and our first stop is Lowe Inlet, reputed to have a beautiful waterfall.  As we head south traveling through Grenville Channel, the rain gives way, the clouds part and we have sun.  Our spirits are buoyed as we turn off into the inlet and drop anchor right in front of Verney Falls.  There is no time to ooh and aah over the waterfall yet as we have been invaded by flesh eating flies that look like bees and are as large birds.  They are swarming the boat but we have screens to install and our handy electronic zapper which keeps us busy for some time.

When the threat is  finally reduced, we hop into the dinghy to get a look at the waterfall up close but we can hardly get close as the salmon for clogging the way.  Hundreds of them are encircling us -   launching themselves out of the water, splashing and creating great havoc.  As a Native American told us in Alaska, they are jumping because they are happy.  We’d we pretty happy too if one jumped right into the boat – instant sushi – and me without my wasabi paste.

We finally look up at the falls, and there, sitting on a rock overlooking the cascading water with fish trying to jump the rapids, is a black bear.  He is dining on said sushi. We spend a long time peering as he lumbers  to the waterfall edge, grabs a jumping salmon, carries it to his rock and starts munching – without even any soy sauce or ginger.  He repeats this exercise over and over – a fellow sushi lover – and a greedy one.

The next day, with sun blazing, we head to Khutze Inlet, a five hour ride through winding channels lined with evergreens. Just off Princess Royal Channel, we turn into Khutze and meander another five miles to the head of the inlet where we anchor in front of an 85 foot cascading waterfall.  Perfection – except we can’t sit in the sun to enjoy the spray misting our faces because the flesh eating flies have followed us.  But by dusk they disappear  and we watch about  20 eagles perched on the drying mud flats.

Khutze Inlet

Our next stop is Shearwater, a First Nations settlement.  We stopped there on our way north, it is a perfect place to provision– and I use that word loosely here as the freight boat comes only on Mondays and then it doesn’t bring a lot.  But, it is Monday  so we are in luck and get ready for our next big crossing of Queen Charlotte Sound.  This is also where we celebrate my 60^th birthday – the bar in Shearwater where I treat myself to a Greek salad and poutine - a perfect low key way to commemorate the day.