In search of the spirit bear
In the northwest corner of British Columbia is the Great Bear Rainforest, five times the size of Banff National Park and twice the size of the Serengeti. Covering eight million acres, the rainforest boasts a biomass of 500 tonnes per acre, 40 per cent greater than the Amazon. It is the largest temperate rainforest in the world and has some of the most spectacular flora, fauna and vistas to been seen any where on the planet – yet most Canadians don’t know it even exists. In fact, more Canadians have visited the Serengeti and the Amazon than the Great Bear Rainforest, which is a a real shame.
What excites me most about the place is that it’s home to the elusive Kermode Bear, otherwise known as the Spirit Bear, a rare black bear with a genetic anomaly that sometimes makes it white. Less than 10 per cent of this isolated black bear population is white, and their remoteness in this impermeable old growth forest makes a Spirit Bear sighting very rare and special. They inhabit a small and remote area of northwestern British Columbia, principally on Princess Royal Island, which is why my daughter Tory and I journeyed there last fall. We flew to Vancouver, took a small plane north to Bella Bella, stayed over night in Shearwater and on the next day took a four-hour boat ride north to Klemtu on Princess Royal Island.
The Spirit Bear Lodge was to be our base for the next five days. Owned and operated by the Kitasoo people, the lodge is very modern and wonderfully located at the water’s edge. As for guests, there was an Australian family of six, two French veterinarian couples, a German BMW CEO and his wife, two unusual women from Vermont who were travelling the world in an attempt to observe every bear species, and Tory and I, the only Canadians.
Sometimes things turn out to be better than anyone could ever have hoped for – so it was for my trip to the Great Bear Rainforest. I purposely chose a date in mid-September to coincide with the salmon runs and maximize our chances of sighting Spirit and grizzly bears. At this time of year bears come out of the dense forest and feed on the spawning salmon in the shallow waters of the mountain streams. It also happens that my anniversary falls during that time, so I incorporated the trip as an anniversary gift. Surprisingly, I don’t have a good track record when it comes to anniversary presents – in fact the Leafs probably have a better win-loss record than I do – yet I have remained married for some 34 years. I think the secret is that like most Leaf supporters, Jacquie has adjusted her expectations to avoid disappointment. Unfortunately, events transpired to prevent Jacquie from being able to go, but in the end that turned out to be the best anniversary present I could have gotten her, and Tory was able to take her spot. This pleased Jacquie, because Tory and I have shared an avid interest in the Spirit Bears for decades, since long before their existence was common knowledge outside of the lands of Kitasoo people.
The trip up was spectacular, but nothing compared to the five-day experience we had once there. On the first night we were invited to a potluck dinner in the native village and Tory and I had the honour of sitting with the Hereditary Chief Charlie Mason. He guided us through the many fish dishes and personally recommended the sea urchin and the herring roe; thankfully, we took small portions. The Kitasoo people are a marine culture and eat very few terrestrial foods. In fact, they take a strong anti-hunting stance, particularly with regard to the trophy hunting of bears, and there are very few deer and no moose in the area. Over dinner, the chief shared some traditional stories about the Spirit Bears and, to our delight, the Sasquatch.
The Sasquatch has always played a vibrant and important role in Kitasoo oral history. To them they are very real, and to laugh or snicker is to be disrespectful. In Tory and me they found kindred spirits, which opened us to a number of fascinating stories of first-hand encounters. Most of the stories relate to the disappearance of natives after being taken by Sasquatch, and we were warned that, should we encounter one, never to look directly into their eyes as they have spiritual powers that can possess you. One island in particular seemed to be a hotbed of activity, and after a very compelling account of a large manlike figure emerging in the glow of a campfire sent chills down our spines, they offered to take us to camp out there. Our status as true believers spread and the name and location of the island was subsequently entrusted to us and the camping invitation repeated. On the way home several guides went out of their way to intercept our boat to present Tory with a book on Sasquatch and thank us for our sincere interest.
Sensing smirks of derision on the faces of my readers, I leave you one thought: there could very easily be more hairy things in eight million acres of primordial Great Bear Rainforest, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
In my next column in the Echo, I’ll tell you about some of the wonderful experiences Tory and I had while staying at the Spirit Bear Lodge, including our encounter with the great bear itself.
See a video of Al’s encounter HERE.
