Day 31-33 - Fiordland

What a beautiful marine park we have stumbled into. Its long been a wish of ours to visit this area, but we have been forwarned to await good weather. The stars have aligned and I'm wearing my lucky underwear, we have the most spectacular warm weather we have ever had up here with temperatures in the mid 30's and not a cloud in the sky! We are watching the news and although we count this weather as a blessing, judging from the amount of fires ablaze through BC, they are not enjoying this weather as we are. The water is still a bit chilly at 63 degrees (Farenheit) but Mike goes swimming anyways. The horseflies are unbearable and we are slathered down with "Off" and any other deterrent we can get our hands on. A small price to pay for the scenery up here. We encounter only 2 other boats in the area.
Our first night we stayed in "Poison Cove" - so named for the Captain Vancouver crewmen that ate the clams and died - guess testing for PSP (Paralytic Shellfish Poison)was not invented yet! There are bear beaches abound, with nary a bear to be seen. Perhaps the heat is keeping the bears in hiding? The streams up here are black with fish (pinks) so we were a bit startled to find no bears in the area.

The second night, we ran the rapids into Culpepper Lagoon and anchored at the head of the lagoon, again, great bear beach but no bears. The entrance is running at about 2 knots and again we are disappointed that the book makes it sound so treachorous and again it was a cake walk. We encounter the Kitsoo (Klemtu) - "Watchmen" in the park and they tell us its good to anchor at the head of the bay. All through the creeks and rivers up here, we have found buoys mid stream that are being used by we assume the watchmen to count bears, we cannot think of any other reason for them to be there except perhaps for fishing reasons. Again, the rivers are black with fish with the occassional chum or coho mixed in with the pinks. Enroute into the Culpepper area is one of the most spectaular waterfalls we have ever seen and as you will see from the photographs, it makes for a great new photo for our boat cards!