A Day in the Forest at Eucott Bay

October 8th (Tuesday)
In the morning, around 04:30, we once again started getting gusts of wind. Since the weather has gotten cooler we have been keeping one of our kayaks upside down over our forward v-berth hatch at night. Having it on top provides a protected air space, which prevents our hatch from condensing on the inside, and dripping on our bed. One of the bigger gusts in the night picked the kayak up, and threw it over the side of the boat. Luckily we always keep the kayaks tied off, but we still had to go out and pull it back up, and retie it in a different area so that the wind would not catch it.  Our kayaks are inflatable, and do have a lot of windage, but they are also not light. It is amazing the power of the wind.
When we got up in the morning it was a beautiful, windy day. The sky was blue, the air was crisp, the cresting little white caps blowing past us were glistening in the sun, and all of the mountain peaks around us had a beautiful dusting of fresh snow.

It was a gorgeous morning!!  It was the first snow on the mountains around Eucott Bay, and it was five degrees in our cockpit, the coldest yet. 

By morning the gusts of wind had only increased. From what we could tell from yesterday’s weather-fax isobar chart we were getting the wind from a passing high-pressure isobar line. The wind direction was such that it would be blowing up Dean Channel instead of down, and since we didn't want to fight the wind all the way out, and the chop that would probably be quite bad, since it would be tide-against-wind, we decided not to leave today.
Instead, we decided to go ashore, and spend the day in the forest. The hard decision was whether to kayak over, or row the tender. We could not take Kiki with the outboard on, as the tide would be going out all day and would leave her high and dry. Without the outboard on, we are able to easily carry her to the water. If we took our kayaks, us, and everything we took with us, would get quite wet from spray. If we rowed the tender, we were giving the wind a lot more to blow on. We decided to row Kiki, and try to time it between the strong gusts. We loaded up Kiki, with her tied off to the side of the boat bucking around in the chop, pulling tight and jerking on her tether. Once we were loaded we untied and held on, waiting for our window. After a stronger gust the wind began to die and we headed out, Jason rowing hard against the wind. We crabbed our way sideways and into the wind, and went ashore at the hot springs.

Here we left Kiki, and walked the shoreline to the beginning of our trail. We had brought with us our wet tarps, and we hung them up to hopefully blow-dry through the day. We were unable to dry the tarps onboard with the fire going, and we did not want to store them wet.
We headed along our trail up into the open area of the forest where we had done our target practice last week, and we spent the afternoon in the beautiful forest target practicing and watching the birds. 

Jason taking target practice through the trees.

It was amazing how little the smaller animals of the forest seemed to care about the noise. The wind blowing through the forest made it very chilly, and we were glad that we had our layers on, and a thermos of hot tea.
When we got back to the hot springs, we enjoyed a soak, and we saw the mom bear with one cub across on the far shore. Then a little later we saw the single bear, also across on the far shore further to the south, and when we were getting out to towel off, we saw the mom bear with three cubs walking on the grassy point, right by where we had just been an hour or so before. We watched them moving along the shore, smiling at the three cubs who always seem to be up to something. With the mom with one cub, and the mom with two cubs, the cubs always seem to be right behind mom, always in a line, always following. The three cubs are totally different, one is always lagging way behind, and the cubs are always off on their own doing their own thing.  One will go into the bush, another may climb a boulder, while the third stands on its back legs and reaches into a bush. All the while mom just does her thing, looking back to check on them from time to time. It is very cute!
It was dusk by the time we got home, and we enjoyed an easy dinner of leftover goose spaghetti with biscuits. Yum yum!!