Wild with the Dolphins

Aug. 10, Ocean Falls
Coming up Fisher Channel we spotted a long line of what looked like a rippling boat wake in the distance off our bow. As we came closer we saw it was a huge pod of Pacific White-side dolphins, all swimming in a line in one direction. As we watched they all turned and suddenly swimming the other way. They looked very organized and I suspect they were herding fish ahead of them. When we came within about a quarter of a mile though, all discipline was off. The pod completely broke ranks and surrounded our boat, taking turns surfing alongside and just in front of our bow in the wake. Although each animal traveled his own course, they seemed to read each other's minds as the pod acted and moved together. Leaping and splashing, turning aside and running ahead again, we watched as dozens and dozens of them played all around us for at least 15 minutes. For those minutes we were the star float at the center of a holiday parade. They made us part of the pod for a little while, and we felt the exuberance of being one among so many, all with a single thought--

We came in to the 'ghost town' of Ocean Falls and found it to be fascinating. The few residents are so very friendly, and there is something eerie but compelling about the sight of so many big office buildings, hotels and houses, empty and open to the elements. When Crown Zellerbach had a big pulp and paper mill here in the 1970s it had a population of 5000. Now it's down to 40, but they're still trying to make a go of it. We've stayed longer than we thought we would. We've been watching the local harbour seals patrolling the docks, and yesterday we saw an otter chomping on a fish as he swam along the shoreline. Two good-sized deer grazed along the road and crossed just in front of us as they picked their way from the surrounding forest down to the shoreline in front of town to forage.



This afternoon Pat and I walked through the town. I climbed through the broken windows of several abandoned houses and found hardwood floors, porcelain bathroom fixtures and floor plans that reminded me of Chautauqua cottages. Patrick spotted two bucks relaxing in the yard between two them and we watched them for a while. Eventually they got up and threaded their way down a narrow game trail to a patch of thimbleberry bushes where they browsed, unperturbed by my camera. Occasionally they glanced up at me with their wild, liquid eyes, but they soon returned to the fine business of nibbling on the very freshest of thimbleberry branch tips. Their antlers were still in velvet and I wished I could reach out to stroke them.

Aug. 8, Roscoe Inlet
We anchored all alone at the tip of a narrow bay in Roscoe Inlet with a grassy estuary at the head, and enjoyed hiking up the little creek to see what we could find. I picked a bouquet of wildflowers for the boat; white yarrow, Indian paintbrush, Queen Anne's lace, cornflower, fern and more.


As the sun went down Pat fished over the side at our anchorage and caught a little sand dab as a treat for the cats. While he cleaned it on the fantail, we heard a pack a wolves howling in the twilight. Their cries seem to come from everywhere as they echoed off the steep walls of the mountains that surrounded us.