As I write our first blog from Japan we are sitting in our traditional robes looking out at the stormy sea at The Earth resort.  

We began our trip by flying out of Vancouver to take advantage of the Canadian exchange rate to buy our airline tickets.  By staying over the night before at an airport hotel, it made our day of flying very calm.  Everything was done and all we had to do was eat breakfast and take the shuttle to the airport. 

The most difficult part was getting all of our luggage from the shuttle drop off to check-in.  This isn’t our usual “pack light” adventure.  We are skiing at the end of the trip after two weeks of touring in a winter climate.  But we made it with plenty of time to spare and the Vancouver Airport is quite nice, with an artificial forest stream in the waiting area and a large aquarium. 

 Jim was excited to fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliner with its large windows and better air circulation.  The only oddity was that the reclining seats in our flight’s Business Class didn’t lay down flat (as they did in the two Delta Airlines 777’s we have been on).  Instead, our seats almost reclined flat but then left us at an angle something like Frankenstein’s table in the old movie.  Still we were able to sleep for a few hours of our nine hour flight to Tokyo.

The service from Japan Air Lines (JAL)  couldn’t have been better and I transitioned to my  Japanese cultural experience by ordering the  

 Bento box for dinner which was really quite tasty for airplane food.

After landing our first experience in Japan was fast and efficient.  The luggage came right out and customs was a breeze. Interestingly, Japan takes finger prints and photos of all foreigners.  We were not offended.

Our driver met us, sweeping us and our luggage to his car.  Our 2 large bags, 2 small bags and massive ski bag was on a cart.  We panicked as he approached the escalator only to learn that the clever Japaneese have created carts that adjust so that they can go up or down escalators without a problem.

Once again we chose a wonderful travel agent to plan our trip and we weren’t disappointed at our first quick stop in Tokoyo. The staff took care of all our needs including helping us ship our ski bags on to Myokokogen and our larger bag on to our Kyoto hotel.

After getting our bags settled we headed out for a nearby walk to see a bit of downtown Tokyo. Our travel agent gave us lots of walking and touring suggestions.  This evening we headed out to find a local SIM data card for our IPAD. On the way we walked past the beautifully lit Tokyo International Forum  

 building built on the former site of  Edo Castle.  Bics Camera store was a hopping potpourris of technology and although no one spoke English well and we don’t speak Japanese at all, we all spoke technology and quickly procured a SIM card which the staff tested and is working beautifully.

From there we went to a nearby building that offered a variety of international restaurants.  We settled on some Tapas because they had a no smoking section and made it through a meal and the walk back before collapsing in bed.  Other than the large number of smokers, the Japanese are very clean — there is no graffiti, almost no litter of any kind anywhere, and yet there are almost no public garbage cans.  On our 90 minute drive from the airport to downtown, we didn’t see a single dirty car or even a dirty truck!

Breakfast was lovely and our job was to take a walk to Dimelers department store and their food section to procure Bento boxes for our train trip later that day.  

  The variety and beauty of the culinary selections was truly overwhelming.  We decided on a Japanese style bento box and a salad for our travel food.

Back at the hotel the staff was waiting to walk us to our train.  Although we felt a bit lazy and self-conscious by this service, we thoroughly enjoyed the stress-free transfer.

  The trains in Japan are exceptionally clean, comfortable, smooth and fast, and run like clockwork, especially the “super express” bullet trains.  We boarded and left promptly only carrying our overnight bags as instructed.  Jim loves trains and this trip will be full of train travel.

Our excursion southwest along the coast took us past Mt. Fuji, lasted most of the afternoon and included one transfer, which thanks to detailed instructions we navigated on our own without a problem.

After 2 mores shuttles (one big and one small), along a surprisingly narrow and winding coastal road (and by many oyster operations) we were welcomed with Japanese bows by the staff at “The Earth” healing waters resort.  Our room is amazing, the views of the ocean and rugged coastline are vast, and the food is artistic and scrumptious. 

    

   
Originally, we were supposed to go for a train excursion on Monday to a local important shrine.  But we decided instead to just stay here, enjoy the healing waters and watch the big wind storm that blew in overnight, raised the surf to over ten feet of loud crashing waves, and then gave way to a sunny late afternoon. 

We ended our day yesterday with a facial for me and a shiatsu massage for both of us.  Here in Japan facials include massages, because your face can’t relax if your body isn’t relaxed.  The shiatsu massage was very different.  Two people swept into our room pointed to the bed where we both told to lay down with our clothes on.  They then proceeded to press very firmly on every pressure point in the body. They never touch you directly, there is always a cloth between us and them. It was different, but surprisingly relaxing after it was done.

Very few people spoke any English here and we were the only Americans.  But we felt totally welcomed and well cared for at all times. Here is a young lady, Shinba, that practiced her English with us while we were here and was delightful.  She lives near Mt. Fuji but works here and stays in the staff housing. We are soon to be Facebook friends!

 Today we are on the move again, this time to Kyoto.   We send you all our love and hopefully a little of the “healing waters” Japanese energy we have experienced so far.

We end our first blog with a beautiful sunrise from this morning. 

After leaving Blind Channel we cruised the short distance to Dent Island. Dent is back in the land of cell service and as the dots appeared the messages came in and we got the news that Jim’s dad was in the hospital. We decided he should fly back and we quickly arranged for a seaplane flight home for him that evening.

Jim’s dad got better during the day and a half Jim was with his dad, so Jim decided to fly back to the boat for our preplanned time with Jasmine and James. However, after Jim returned, his dad became worse again so we decided to head home early. Dick is back at Mirabella now and is doing better. But we wanted to share this last blog post with you.

While Jim flew to Seattle I stayed at the Dent Island marina and was lucky that our friends Stan and Mary Harrelson happened to be there too, so I had a great dinner with friends. Joining us at the table was an interesting collection of boaters and fishermen. I met a lovely couple, Richard and Michelle Glickman, who own Gorge Harbour. They were celebrating their anniversary at Dent. Since I was alone, and determined to catch a fish, Richard offered to take me fishing (this gave Michelle the opportunity to sleep in).

I warned Richard that my fishing success rate was dismal. Despite that, he took me out, gathered a yummy breakfast for us, and gave me a great fishing lesson. Although our summer of heat and sun has been a constant this trip, my fishing day was cool and drizzly. Richard was a great teacher, and we did catch a couple of salmon, but they were too small to keep. Our only keeper was a medium sized rockfish, which later became yummy fish tacos, but no large catch for us. Ah well. We shared great conversation, I learned a lot and I look forward to seeing Richard and Michelle again.

We got back to Dent just in time to meet Jasmine and James arriving by seaplane. Although it was cloudy they had a fun seaplane ride. “Just a little scary,” James said of the end of the flight.  After they arrived we headed to lunch before taking a nap.

Because it was a rainy day we spent most of our time playing in the boat. But, Grandma was prepared! I purchased a great jigsaw puzzle at Blind Channel that was perfect for James. Although it was rated 3+ he rose to the challenge and really enjoyed working on the puzzle repeatedly over the next few days.

After a good nights sleep we woke up, enjoyed a hardy breakfast, some rock throwing and then all worked on our boat chores preparing the True Love for the Captain’s return and our cruise south.

James was a big helper, filling the water tank and washing the boat.

The Captain arrived at noon and we headed out. The second mate fell asleep almost immediately, exhausted from all his chores, but we heard on the radio that there was a pod of orcas just north of Dent. So we turned around and headed to see them. Jasmine had never seen orcas from the boat. The orcas positioned themselves perfectly to feed on the salmon as the current funneled them through the narrow channel. We counted over 12 including some really big orcas.

Because we decide to return early to Seattle we changed our plans to take Jasmine and James to Pendrell Sound and instead headed for Gorge Harbour. Richard and Michelle have done a great job with the area and James really enjoyed the heated community pool.

One of our favorite memories of the trip was sharing Mary Poppins with James for the first time. We watched the first half on Saturday night while anchored in Gorge Harbour and James was mesmerized.

From Gorge, we cruised on south to one of our favorite stops: Egmont. It worked perfectly as a stop on our way to Pender Harbour, where Jasmine and James had rescheduled their flight back to Seattle for Monday.

James was excited to see the end of Mary Poppins, which we saved for after dinner. The day ended with a beautiful sunset and moonrise. The next morning we took the tender out to show Jasmine and James the Skookumchuck Rapids and then took a walk to our favorite little bakery in the woods. James enjoyed a yummy, mini cinnamon roll and ran around the grounds and the deck. Jasmine, Jim and I also enjoyed the yummy baked goods and breakfast sandwiches while we watched James play.

After leaving Egmont, Jasmine and James napped during the cruise to Pender Harbour, where they awoke rested and ready for their gorgeous seaplane flight home.

Even though it was 2:30 PM, after plotting our course and estimating our time of arrival, we decided to take advantage of the long days and temporarily calm winds to cross the Georgia Strait. We then cruised past Naniamo to a new stop, Pirates Cove in the Southern Gulf Islands.

It’s sweet and funky; a shallow little anchorage with shore ties to keep the boats from bumping into each other. Our 57 foot boat was a little oversized for the area, but it was late and we made due. Because it was such a low tide, the Captain was a bit concerned with our position and we had to reset the anchor and the shore tie. The next morning it was clear that our concerns were valid. Our clearance to the bottom was under 3 feet. But a fellow boater had totally miscalculated and was high and dry.

The island surrounding the moorage is a marine park with lots of trails so our days started with a fun little hike. The area is lovely, but unfortunately it was really buggy. Usually, I’m protected by the Captain’s natural appeal to the biting critters, but not this time. Jim didn’t get any bites, because he was protected by long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. I was munched. Over 20 bites! Oh well!

From Pirates Coves our cruise south took us through calm waters and sunny skies all the way back to the USA and to the little town of La Conner. I used to be the person at the helm when docking the first True Love because I couldn’t jump from the high stern to the dock to secure the lines. But since we have owned the Navigator I hadn’t practiced docking. It became clear after we thought I might have to Captain the boat back this trip, that it was time for me to practice docking, “just in case.”

It’s tough for the Captain to give up the controls, but we switched roles, Jim on the lines and me controlling the helm. It’s a little tricky maneuvering in the strong currents of the channel in La Conner, but the Captain was pleased with my docking. I must say the True Love maneuvers beautifully. The next day I took the helm again at the nearby fuel dock.

Because the low tide and the currents we waited until noon to head to Seattle so it was another long day heading home. We were treated to beautiful weather once again and enjoyed watching lots of navy aircraft flying in to NAS Whidbey for fleet week.

As we approached Seattle a skywriter was practicing for Seafair.

We are home now for a while. Our next adventure will be the birth of our second grandchild in late August or early September! Stay tuned!

Until our next adventure!

The Captain and First Mate of the True Love.

Traveling south from the Broughtons back to Campbell River and Desolation Sound is much more comfortable when the typical NW winds blowing down Johnstone Strait are “light” (15 knots or less). Unfortunately, the typical NW winds blowing down Johnstone Strait are “Gale” (35+ knots) or “Strong” (20+). On Sunday, the wind forecast for Johnstone Strait for Monday morning were “light” so we decided to make our way back to the south part of the Broughtons so that we were set up to enter Johnstone Strait on Monday morning. On our way we hoped to see a bear on the beach looking for crabs or clams at low tide.
We stopped first at the Kwatsai Bay Marina to check it out and use some of the best internet in the area so far. It’s a really pretty little bay, surrounded by high mountains, and run by a lovely family although the docks could use some newer planks. The marina was fully reserved, but there was an open spot at the dock where we were allowed to tie up for a quick visit. It’s definitely a good stop for the future. 

 At Kwatsi we got a much-needed Grandparent fix by trading quick text videos with James before leaving to find our anchorage for the night. Based on descriptions in the Waggoner Cruising Guide (our go-to reference text), the Captain decided to investigate the head of Thompson Sound, about 10 miles away. Although the waters of Thompson Sound are so deep that there is almost no place to anchor, the cruising guide said there there was a small area at the very head of the Thompson Sound where a few boats could anchor. 

So began our magical adventure in Thompson Sound. I decided to take a quick snooze so to recover from my late night star gazing the night before when Jim spotted “Wanda” the Whale breaching in the middle of the Thompson Sound, about a mile in front of our boat. 

 We spent the next hour watching Wanda, becoming amateur biologists by counting the number of breaths between each of her dives. The typical pattern was ten breaths: 8 lounging on the surface before bowing her powerful body on the 9th and then diving down strongly after the 10th, showing us the pretty white underside of her tail (which is how we identified Wanda as a humpback whale). Wanda typically remained submerged for 5 minutes (presumably searching for food) before repeating her routine.

The head of Thompson Sound is a glorious place, surrounded by mountains and including the Kakweiken River, where salmon run and bears hunt salmon. The Captain and I had not seen a bear yet, but this was prime bear habitat, so we were hopeful.

The head of the sound had one boat anchored in the little area where anchoring was possible, plus a small shack and a little dock about a mile away. The depths shown by our depth sounder were very different from those on our charts (much shallower in the areas closer to the mouth of the river, and much deeper in the areas farther away. Later we would learn that there was a huge rock avalanche last year that had really changed the river, the shoreline and the nearby bay.

After anchoring a kayaker paddled our way from the small shack and the dock. He introduced himself as Rees Wilson and said that he and his boss had the “wilderness license” for the area and offered bear tours. He seemed like a sweet young man but his first price was much too high for us. After paddling back and conferring with his boss (he referred to him as “the old man”) we soon negotiated an acceptable price, and set the time for our “tour” for the early evening when it would be cooler.

Now we assumed Rees and his boss would be taking us on a boating trip up the river. We assumed wrong. At the appointed time we took our dinghy to their dock where we were introduced to the “old man”: Trapper Rick. Now Trapper Rick is lanky man who looks like he has been in the Canadian outback for decades. It turns out that our young kayaker, Rees Wilson, was training with Trapper Rick to become a licensed “bear guide”. In Canada you must first apprentice with a guide for at least a year before you can take the official bear guiding class. Although this seemed backward to us, we assume the government is just trying to reduce the average class size in their bear guiding school.

Assuming our adventure used a boat and not our legs, we wore our “chako” hiking sandals, not hiking shoes, and Jim didn’t bringing his hiking poles. Nevertheless, we just went for it when Trapper Rick suggested we just put on some bug spray and follow the two of them up the trail from the little dock to a truck that was apparently parked about a half mile away. The trail was once a road, but the road was destroyed by last year’s rockslide, which also washed out a bridge and other parts of the road.

Truck? Huh?

At this point we guessed that we would be taking a truck to a boat that was on the river upstream, and then using the boat to go see the bears. Wrong again.

Along the trail I turned around and looked at Jim smiling and mouthed “OMG”. 

Rees was carrying a can of gas. It turns out that was for the old, very used truck. Because Rees and Rick had no funnel, the siphon method was used to put a couple of gallons of gas in the truck before we drove off into bear country.

As we began our drive up the logging road, we learned that we were Rees’s first official clients during his bear guide training

We were honored to be Rees’ first clients, but glad that Trapper Rick was in the truck with us.

  Trapper Rick gently instructed Reese from the back seat as we made our way up the logging road where we had our first encounter with a grizzly bear: Emma or just “Em”. Rick had named most of the bears over the years. Emma responded to Rick talking to her from the truck, window down, which really made Jim nervous. But, Rick said not to worry, Em could break into the truck easily regardless of whether the window was up or down.

Grizzlies are big bears, even from a distance, and Emma was a female and thus smaller than all of the males.
The logging road abruptly came to an end where an old bridge across the river was now missing. So, we got of the truck walked on a trail followed the river upstream. This river meanders up the mountainside, with occasional small waterfalls. The truck ride took us 600 feet above sea level. 
Once again we were walking a trail, in a line, late in the day in Grizzly country, just Trapper Rick, Rees, me and then Jim. We learned that Trapper Rick, thank God, carried a big 45 caliber handgun and, less comforting, that Rees had a big can of pepper spray. But we were all having a good time and Trapper Rick and Rees certainly seemed confident in their abilities and leadership.

Jim later told me that he was thinking about the old saying: “you don’t have to run faster than the bear, you just have to run faster than the people you’re with” as we walked the trails. Unfortunately for Jim, even though Trapper Jim had a bad leg, he still was pretty fast for an old guy, so Jim felt he was the definitely the slowest in our group. Of course, Jim was counting on Trapper Rick to take on a bear with his gun if needed while we made our escape, giving Jim a short lead at least in getting back to the truck! I never had these thoughts because I assumed I was at worst the second fastest in our group.

Now we thought: it must be time to get in the boat. And there was a boat! 

  Unfortunately, it was a sad little rowboat, with no engine or even a paddle, at the bottom of a steep embankment. The old boat was tied to a rope crossing the river and was used like a small river ferry in old westerns movies, where the passengers pulled the rope to traverse to the other side.

  
OK! 

So we climbed down the embankment using a ladder to reach the lower riverbank. We got into the old boat and Rick and Reese pulled us the 30 yards across the river. Again, this all happened on a salmon river in grizzly bear country. Let’s just say that if we had seen a grizzly bear there, it would have been very intimate, but also a bit unnerving.

Safely across the river, we climbed out and headed to Rick’s mountain cabin about a half mile away, situated right next to a 10 foot waterfall and an old concrete salmon ladder. The cabin, like every other aspect of Trapper Rick’s Wilderness Bear Adventure Experience, needs some work. But the location was amazing: the salmon were beginning to run, the sun was about to set, and Trapper Rick thought our chances of seeing grizzly bear were excellent. 

OK! 

  We walked a short trail from the cabin to the riverand hung out for about 30 minutes on the river, next to the fish ladder, while Rees watched for bear and Trapper Rick fished for salmon with a rod and reel. 

Jim later told me he was preparing his escape route down one of the weaving concrete chambers in the fish ladder where he figured the bear couldn’t squeeze through. But Jim’s escape route was unnecessary, as there were no bears at the fish ladder while we were there. 

 As the sun was setting we made our way back the way we came: trail past the cabin to the boat, boat across the river, trail to the truck (where Trapper Rick briefly couldn’t find the keys because Rees hid them in the ash tray instead of “leaving them in the ignition in case of an emergency” as he was told), truck down the logging road (it was getting dark, and the headlights weren’t working), truck to the end of the road and finally trail to the dock. 

Halfway down the logging road Rees said he sensed that we would see another bear and we did. The biggest male bear in the local area ran across the road in front of us. Grizzly sighting number 2!

We were all tired and hungry when we got into our dinghys to head to our boats. Yes, Rick and Rees were staying in the other boat in the small anchorage. Probably a good idea given the grizzly bears living in the area!

We said our goodbyes at the dock and drove our dinghy the short distance back to the safety of the True Love where I cooked up some chicken legs on the grill and heated up a package of Trader Joe’s gnocchis. We washed those down with some celebratory champagne. After much needed showers we shared some ice cream on the upper helm while looking at the glorious stars and reliving our big adventure in GrizzlyLand.

What a crazy, wonderful, unexpected adventure. Both Trapper Rick and Rees love what they are doing and where they are working in this beautiful land. Trapper Rick stays in the area in the winter and hunts sable in the winter. His life has taken him from Nova Scotia, to Los Angeles (where he was briefly a member of Hell’s Angels before witnessing a murder), to working as a welder in Northern Canada to his current gig of Wilderness Bear Guiding in Thompson Sound. 

The sounds of seals splashing in the water filled the air as we fell into a long, deep sleep. The next morning it was low tide and we hoped to spot another bear at the beach during low tide. Rees paddled over to say goodbye and while he was aboard we all saw Emma on the nearby beach.

  
It was a little tricky bringing in the shore tie because the seaweed on the surface had tightly bound both the incoming and outgoing lines together. We’ve never experienced this before. It wasn’t impossible to detangle, just tedious.

Because of the problem with our shore tie and the lovely morning bear sighting, we left a little later than expected which led to rougher seas than we hoped as we cruised south down Johnstone Strait. On our way out of Thompson Sound we passed some  more Dolphins. 

But fortunately, the winds and seas were going in the same direction as we were, and the True Love and its crew made it the 20 miles to the next safe harbor, Forward Harbour, without a problem. The calm bay was a bit crowded with boats gathering to prepare for the trip north to the Broughtons the next morning.  But we found a good anchorage, took the kayaks out for a spin and slept in the next morning before heading down to one of our favorite spots: the “Crawford Anchorage” next to Erasmus Island, near the Blind Channel Resort. It was as perfect as we remembered, so we stayed there for a couple of days before meeting up with Jasmine and James at Dent Island. 

  Crawford Anchorage is a practically perfect location with room for just one boat, fantastic views, eagles and a short tender drive to Blind Channel. 

  
Blind Channel is one of the nicest places in this area with a yummy restaurant for dinner, little store, fuel pumps, internet and overnight docks. Last night we went there for dinner. Their salads are beautiful with edible flowers and yummy fresh greens. After more than a week out we are out of fresh vegetables, so I was craving greens.
Today we are going to do some provisioning back at Blind Channel, kayak, fish and edit these blogs so that we can share our most recent adventures with you! 

True Love Adventure copy editor hard at work!