Port Hardy

Report by Viktoria d.K.

Port Hardy – Where are the Bears?

We went to Port Hardy basically to see bears, but of course regardless of how hard we looked, we just couldn’t find any! The most bear-like thing we saw during our trip was bear-poop and a really stinky and nasty fish-massacre they left, after the salmons traveled through the area.

Port Hardy – The Bed & Brekfast

We stayed one night in a really sweet but fusty and clammy Bed & Breakfast, called Bonita B&B. At first sight it looked just like a normal house, not like some kind of B&B or even a Hotel. Well at second glance, it actually still looked like a normal house, but it turned out that it was the B&B, where the basement was turned into an apartment. It had a fully equipped kitchen and a filled fridge. The really nice thing was a small fireplace, which turned out to be the heater replacement, too. Once turned on it got hot so fast and we all felt cozy :)

The night was short, but in the morning we got a God-like breakfast served. Bonita (that was the name of the owner) came downstairs with a tray full of scrambled eggs and at least a ton of breakfast sausages, as well as white bread with butter, coffee, tea, hot chocolate and even apple and cinnamon muffins. She called it “continental” breakfast, but I would call it “best-breakfast-I-ever-had-which-was-never-served-in-a-hotel :)
After the great breakfast we tried once again to find bears, but, well, what should I tell you, there haven’t been any- AGAIN! My guess is that the bears went to hibernation just early this year. I will never try to find bears at the end of October again…

Port Hardy – St. Joseph’s Bay

After the bear watching totally failed, we went on to go to St. Josephs Bay, which you can reach by using a gravel street only, with a lot of holes in it. I felt like being James Bond’s Martini- “Shaken, not stirred”, but, well, it was totally worth it! After the 40 minutes drive, we still had to hike through a part of a forest, where not just bears lived in, but also wolves and cougars. And if that wasn’t enough, there was also a sign, which told us to watch for water bombs! YES! WATER BOMBS!

That was kind of scary, and crazy, and mysterious, but after we reached the bay, everything was forgotten. We stood in front of the amazing Pacific, with sand and islands in front and the green forest behind us. On one side the ocean, on the other side wood. I would never know how amazing this feels, if I hadn’t experienced it by myself. Also the sun was shining bright and nice and we felt like being on Hawaii, if it wouldn’t have been so cold.
We stayed there about one hour, sitting, relaxing and going for a swim (I wouldn’t recommend swimming in the ocean in October, because the Pacific is already really cold by then) until we had to start getting back, because it takes 5 hours from Port Hardy back to Nanaimo.