August 1

Cloudy and a bit cooler today. For most of the trip the weather was on the cool side with many showers yet for the past two to three weeks it’s been warm and no rain. The highest temperature we’ve seen on the trip was maybe 80 but usually in the high 70s.  Here in Hyder the salmon are at the mouth of the river with only small numbers heading to the spawning grounds in the smaller streams. The bear viewing area here is along a smaller stream where only a few hundred chum salmon have come. Thus the bears are not showing up yet. They will most likely be here soon but probably after we head south.

After checking the bear viewing area with no bears there we came back and did some chores. It was time to reorganize the back seat cab area of the truck where my photograph equipment is stored. As I’m pulling things out, sorting and repacking I pulled out the box where I have my dead Nikon D850 camera body. For laughs I stuck a battery in it and it fired up. After some test shots I found it to appeared to be working!!!! I’ll test it a bit later today and find out if it is really working.

Once all is packed away we head to Stewart for a hike on trails near town. We start with a boardwalk over the marsh at the head of the Portland Canal. There we meet Mary and Bob from Wala Wala, Washington and Kay and Douglas and Kay from Colorado. Conversation ranged from photography to birds plus more. After this Marsha and I headed on the Big Spruce Trail that went into some very large spruce. It was a cool trail and as we got further from town the more bear scat we found. Time to turn around. The spruce were truly large. We estimated it would take 10 to 12 people holding hands to encircle one of the large spruce trees.

Back in town we grab lunch at Temptations, a great bakery and café. Heading back to Hyder we checked out the marsh and saw one black bear with a cub. Sorry, no photos of the bears. Next back to the bear viewing area and still no bears. I dropped Marsha off at the campground while I went out to photograph putting my “new” camera to the test. Only a quarter mile from the campground I spotted several eagles along the river. I stopped and photographed them for half and hour getting some great shots. Back to camp and I find the camera is fully functional. I am thrilled! A note, as I write this I can hear eagle cries. It’s a sound that I love hearing.