We're at another beautiful BC anchorage with waterfalls, snowcapped mountains and thickly wooded trees all around us.  Dozens of curious otters are fishing, a Bald Eagle entertained us by seeming to swim to shore apparently doing the American crawl and we put the crab and shrimp traps out.  Later in the day, the three of us ventured up river in the Boston Whaler (our dinghy) to see what we could see.  We passed many otters and some unique looking ducks.  Then about a half mile upstream, Eric saw a brown creature in the tall grass on the side of the river.  Was it a wolf?  A deer?  A fox?  We had just commented that this sure looked like bear country!  And, sure enough, there was our first bear - a Grizzly!  Feeling safe in our whaler with its 60 hp motor, we crept in close to get photos.  Just when we were about as close we dared, the motor sputtered and quit!  We were out of gas!  My heart pounded a little as Eric grabbed the paddle, turned us around and we slowly maneuvered away from the bear.  In reality, the bear could have cared less, although he did look over a couple times to check on us.  I kept my eye on him as Eric paddled us away.  It wasn't long before we were safely away from shore and the Grizzly began walking toward the woods.  We laughed, nervously at first, at our dumb luck.  Taking turns paddling back to Oso Blanco was invigorating and we observed the animal life in the shallows.  Fortunately, there was little or no current so the trek was simple.  We congratulated ourselves on spotting our first Grizzly in the wild and laughed at the stupidity of not checking the fuel level prior to our venture! 

The only thing disturbing the tranquility of these surroundings was the noise of the helicopter taking off on the 200' yacht, Senses, next to us!  There are only four of us anchored here and it is highly unusual to have a yacht this large in an anchorage!  We've been watching their crew check their crab traps (probably for their dinner tonight) and they are doing way better than us.  "Our crew" has been skunked so far!  So we moved our traps closer to theirs.  When we were within uncomfortable distance of Griz, our backup plan was to call Senses on the radio and have them come get us.  Fortunately we didn't have to call in that favor.