Day 15 & 16 - Bute Inlet to Dent Island

The worst Kept Secret in Bute

Everywhere you look, this is what you see.

A few more months and this view will be gone

Sunbathing Seal

I Took the Plug out of the Tub too Soon!

Having the luxury of time, we vowed that on this trip, we would go to all the places we never have time to stop at due to the fact that we are always on a 3 week leash, and we are rushing to our final destination at warp speed and slowly winding our way back. Bute Inlet is one of those places. All the books say that this is not a nice place, no anchorages and nothing much to see. Well guess what, they are wrong...dead wrong. We chanced upon a brochure at one of the boat supply places in Campbell River and it was all about a resort called "Bear Bay Lodge"....so we sent them off a quick email and they happen to be there and open. Its a long way in, 40 miles, but definitely worth an overnight stop if not longer. Your hosts are Gisele and Danny and I cannot say enough about the hospitality. They live in a beautiful corner of the world! Lots of logging up and down the inlet so guess who was frothing at the mouth to get the motorbike off the back? Only problem is that due to it being so active, we couldn't very well pull up and starting riding head on into the busy logging truck lanes! It would have caused them quite a start to see 300 lb. of people riding on the little purple and green bike in the middle of their road with a 75 lb. dog running after the bike! So we will save that for another day. Mike did go scout out the end of Bute where the two rivers meet and there are docks, but the draft is very shallow (2 feet)so we wouldn't have been able to moor to get the bike off.

Our Hostess Gisele has lived up that area since around the mid 70's and was very knowledgible about the history and who's who in the zoo on the entire Bute Inlet Area. We did not get to meet our host (Danny) who is a faller (Logging) as he was away working. What a spectacular place in our world. My few photographs on this site, do not do it justice! Fishing is now open at the head of Bute with retention of salmon until May 1, the other guests at the lodge had been very successful with fishing catching 15-26 lb. springs salmon. On researching the area, we found that there was a death at the end of Bute recently, it was a prospector looking for "Slumach's Gold" which is supposedly buried up in the hills somewhere. We had always thoughtthat Slumach Gold was at the end of Pitt Lake in Maple Ridge. I guess thats why they call it prospecting!

We had a nice dinner that Gisele cooked and a bottle of wine and then an early night. Bear Bay Lodge is worth the drive in! Here is their website for anyone interested in going in there. http://www.bearbaylodge.ca/

Can you keep a secret.....no ones supposed to know, but we have it on good authority that the house (above)is part and parcel of the David E Kelly and Michelle Pheifer summer compound. oops, guess its not a secret anymore. Pretty nice digs!