Great Bear Rainforest - Have you booked your trip, yet?

(Map courtesy of New York Times, 2006. Click on image for larger version.)
With all the balmy weather we've been having recently, I can't help but think of the all the fun activities coming up this spring and summer. Among them is spending time paddling in a sea kayak and exploring as a certified assistant sea kayak guide. I will be going through 6-days of training in early May along the coast of Vancouver Island and I'm really looking forward to the experience. More details to follow, but from it, I will have the necessary skills for helping out on the trips through the Great Bear Rainforest.

This year, Tantalus Adventures has 2 trips scheduled for the latter part of summer:

August 28 - September 4, 2009
September 4 - 11. 2009

The trip begins with a ferry ride from Prince Rupert, British Columbia to Hartley Bay, a Gitga'at First Nation community that has made the Great Bear Rainforest their home for centuries. From there, we will explore the coast and protected inlets by sea kayak while enjoying the wildlife of the area, including whales, bald eagles, grizzly bears, coastal wolves, and the legendary white Kermode bear ("spirit bear"). You have to experience this region at least once in your lifetime and see why National Geographic Adventure has it listed as one of their top destinations. And, let me remind you, my friends on the States-side, the dollar is working to your benefit with the exchange rate currently at $1 CAD ~ $0.80 USD....so, that's 20% off the listed price at the moment!! All food, equipment, and ferry travel between Prince Rupert and Hartley Bay are included in the price.

Go here for all of my previous posts on the Great Bear Rainforest. For more information, please visit Tantalus Adventures or Adventure Contact and we hope you can join us on this unique and very special journey. If these dates don't work for you, please contact us about custom trips.

Other helpful Great Bear Rainforest links:

Pacific Wild
Raincoast Conservation Foundation

9th Annual Port Angeles Sea Kayak Symposium (April 17 - 19, 2009)

Thinking about getting a new kayak, gear, or accessories? Sea kayak symposiums are great to attend because you get to demo all the new gear, sign up for clinics to improve your skills, and, more importantly, be around other paddling enthusiasts who are just as excited as you are about heading out on the water.

The 9th Annual Port Angeles Sea Kayak Symposium is scheduled for April 17 - 19, 2009. What makes this symposium extra special is that my friend, Norm Hann, owner of Tantalus Adventures, is one of the keynote speakers for the event. He is scheduled to present on Friday, April 17 beginning at 7:00 pm at the Red Lion Hotel. Norm's presentation will be on a topic that he is incredibly passionate about: the Great Bear Rainforest. Norm has spent 8 seasons in the area as a professional guide, and at the Gitga'at First Nation community in Hartley Bay. So, you can imagine, the incredible pictures and personal stories he has to share.

Access to the symposium on Hollywood Beach is free, though, they are asking for a $5 donation. It's a great opportunity for anyone interested in sea kayaking and it is in one of the most scenic cities on the Olympic Peninsula. You can visit the Olympic Raft & Kayak site for more information. Hope to see you there!

Journey into Canada's Great Bear Rainforest with Ian McAllister

I am so excited about Ian McAllister's upcoming presentations in Seattle at REI on the Great Bear Rainforest. He will be at the Redmond REI on 1/27 and at the Seattle REI on 1/29. The Great Bear Rainforest is the only coastal rainforest where the wildlife, environment, and aboriginal cultures exist as they did many, many, many years ago. In California, there are still remnants of the coastal rainforest but the grizzly, that is on the California flag, no longer exists in that region. The salmon runs down there is close to seeing a similar fate. But, up along the coast of British Columbia, the rainforest continues as-is, relatively speaking of course, but we all know that it's a precarious balance. So far, the bears still exist, the wolves continue to roam, the marine life thrives, and the salmon returns. Ian McAllister, an award-winning author and amazing photographer, is one of the most vocal people for protecting the rainforest along the coast of British Columbia. He heads a non-profit organization called Pacific Wild whose main goal is protecting the Great Bear Rainforest. They work closely with all communities, businesses, and individuals in the area to ensure biodiversity protection is the forefront of decisions and actions. I hope you get to attend this lecture because you will be blown away by the pictures he has taken. There is also a DVD produced by National Geographic on the Great Bear Rainforest that includes a lot of footage with Ian. Look for it at your local library!

One of the best ways to experience this region is by sea kayak. Tantalus Adventures is one of a handful of outfitters that can guide you on this special journey. Here is a link to one of my previous post about the Great Bear Rainforest that contains some pictures that I took up on my trip to the area. The article also features Norm Hann, the owner and lead guide for Tantalus Adventures. We guarantee that this trip will be special and one like no other. In fact, the picture that I use at the heading for my blog is from one of the beaches we camped at overnight (Home Bay on Princess Royal Island). Breathtakingly beautiful. You may contact Norm at norm@tantalus-adventures.com or myself at jocelyn@adventurecontact.com for more information. We hope you can join us.

In the meantime, enjoy this 10-minute video from Pacific Wild showing a lone wolf eating salmon in the Great Bear Rainforest.

(Video source: YouTube, Pacific Wild)

Experience the Great Bear Rainforest - Recent Articles

(Photo: Kermode "Spirit Bear" - not a polar bear!)

Since I haven't gotten off my duff to write about my own sea kayak experience in the Great Bear Rainforest, I'm going to include some articles that have showed up recently in the media. While both articles are beautifully written, neither really comes close to describing just how magnificent the area is. I am very lucky that I have an opportunity to assist Norm and Tantalus Adventures on guided sea kayak trips through the Great Bear Rainforest - which is believed to be the largest remaining tract of coastal temperate rainforest. Though it is a long haul to get to the starting point of this journey, the trip is well worth it. After a ferry ride south from Prince Rupert, we will begin our trip in Hartley Bay - a Gitga'at community which has made the area their home for generations. It's a priviledge to have them open their homes and be so willing to share their culture and lifestyle with us. Norm is an adopted member of the community and throughout the trip, will point out the sites that were or are still being used for the different aspects of their lives (e.g., ceremonies, seaweed harvesting, etc.). This is a unique opportunity that is offered by Tantalus Adventures.

There will be plenty of chances to see humpback and grey whales, orcas, coastal wolves, and black bears. We will even stop at Cetacealab - a whale research lab run by a couple who received special permission from the Gitga'at people to live in the area full-time. For me, being a marine mammal lover, this was an incredible place to visit and Hermann and Janie are an amazing couple. I could listen to the whale songs and vocalizations all day. The highlight of the trip is the opportunity to see the Kermode Bear which is also known as the Spirit Bear. The Kermode bear is a unique subspecies of the black bear found only in this part of the world where approximately one in ten black bear cubs display a white coat - a result of dominant recessive genes. You can go to either Adventure Contact or Tantalus Adventures for more information about the sea kayak trip. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy reading the articles. Better yet, I hope you think about coming with us to experience it yourself.

Wild, Handled with Care - The Boston Globe, May 4, 2008 (Norm and Tantalus Adventures is mentioned in the article.)

Paddling to Zootopia - National Geographic Adventure, November 2007 (Listed as one of the 25 Best New Trips for 2008, but consider Tantalus Adventures to be your personal guide :-) )

Welcome!!

Has it really been 5 months since I moved? My how time flies. I owe so many of you a phone call or some type of correspondence and I know I'm due for a visit to the Bay Area, but, well, it's ski season and we're getting some fresh new snow in the Cascades as we speak so I need to make this brief so I can wax up my skis and do a few turns before sitting down to do some *real* work and then on to my daily workout.

While I miss my friends in the Bay Area immensely as well as some of my favorite bike routes (Paradise...nothing beats that view as you ride in to Sausalito...and the various routes that start on Canada Rd....and the looooooong coffee breaks with Kirsten, and the Captains :-), I am really enjoying my time back in the Pacific Northwest(oh, and I miss all of you who live in other parts of this lovely planet - didn't mean to diss you). I am currently in Issaquah (about 20 mins east of Seattle) mainly because it is easy access to a lot of the outdoor activities all-year round. Issaquah is basically in the foothills of the Cascade mountain range on I-90 so there is a lot to do...there's even a hang gliding jump-off point right up the road from me.

But, as I mentioned earlier, it's still ski season and I have been skiing every week. I'm a ski instructor at Alpental - the most advanced part of the Summit at Snoqualmie ski area located right on I-90 and the closest ski area to the Seattle metropolitan area. (The picture at the top of this blog is from the chair leading to the top of Alpental and the picture on the left is after the record dump we had over a 2 week period that closed the passes and canceled my classes for 2 weekends in a row. I think that was Mother Nature's way of saying 'welcome back!') But, I've also managed to have some fun at other local hills including Crystal, Stevens Pass, and, yes, Whistler-Blackcomb. I think I may do some heli-skiing later on with a local company that does trips in the Northern Cascade area. They still have seats open (especially mid-week) and it's much more affordable. The company is North Cascades Heli-Skiing and you can stay overnight in Winthrop, WA. Speaking of heli-skiing, a friend of mine just headed down to the Ruby Mountains in northern Nevada to heli-ski with Ruby Mountains Heli-Experience which promises you a minimum of 39,000 of helicopter lift! I know I'm supposed to focus on excursions in the Pacific Northwest, but this company sounds awesome and I will make it down there that's for sure. Who is up for a trip next winter? They suggest booking a year in advance. The lodge that they stay in is owned by a woman who runs a brothel in Nevada....how funny is that? I think I'm in the wrong business (LOL). But, I heard the food is awesome and the helicopter picks you up close to the lodge.

So, other updates....yes, I'm still playing ice hockey. I actually belong to two leagues down here. My Friday night league is very similar to the Blue Division (top division) in the NCWHL in the Bay Area and my other league, the Seattle Women's Hockey League, is a little less competitive so I need to watch my "roughing." But, we have coaches and it's nice to have that feedback and work on various parts of your game as opposed to the pick-up style I've been playing for years.

Work-wise, my main source of income is through my work with Peridot which is a small (about 8 of us?) company that does contract work with Microsoft and McKesson. McKesson is my main client and I'm working on web analytics as well as customer satisfaction studies for their various web sites. It's great b/c I can work as much (or as little...which is more the case ;-)) as I need to and everything is done remotely. But, the other work is what I am more passionate about (and having a lot of fun doing) and that is the work I'm doing with my friend Norm and his company, Tantalus Adventures. I am helping out with the marketing and PR and we are currently booking Sea Kayak trips in the Great Bear Rainforest for this coming summer. We can also put together custom trips for you - just ask!

So, that's my update in a nutshell. Please visit regularly for I have some other fun topics to share about the Pacific Northwest. But, more importantly, if you have an activity trip or adventure you would like to share with everyone, please feel free to contribute!!