Queen Cove had much promise to explore and so after a leisurely morning we dropped the dinghy and decided to start by exploring up Park River.  It was a beautiful little inlet and we were soon out of sight of the bay, rowing up an idilique unspoilt land.  As we rowed gently up the stream towards the first rapids, we looked and up and came face to face with a bear just browsing on berry's about 30m away.  After making sure the bear knew we were there (he didn't seem too bothered!) we beat a hasty retreat! We then went across the bay to a logging slip.  After tying the dinghy up well above the high water mark (!) we headed off on what the guidebook had indicated was a trail leading round to the old Indian village and church.  For the first hundred metres it was easy going, then it got progressively worse and we gave up after probably a quarter of a mile.   This wasn't a track, it was bushwacking of the first order!.  We went back to the dinghy and decided we should be able to get most of the way to the village site on water so pottered around until we reached the drying flats at the end of the cove (it was low tide).

  We got out of the dinghy and immediately noticed a large pile of recently opened clams on the beach, along with some pretty massive paw marks!  Never mind, we thought, we can't see any bears and we had bear spray and an air horn.  We walked around the dried out beaches for maybe another quarter mile but although the views were spectacular, neither of us saw much, having our eyes peeled for bears.  We realised that, with our new found concern over meeting Benjy's family again, this wasn't for us so we headed back to the dinghy and back on board the boat.  On returning, the forward heads got jammed so, in the spirit of maintenance in beautiful places, we spent the next hour or so cleaning out the plumbing!  In the late afternoon, whilst sitting on the boat deck, we were thrilled to watch a mother and baby bear saunter along the beach we had been on and right past the boat. 

Fixing the heads therefore may not have been the most fun we could have had but it was definitely safer the exploring the land! Syntropy had left in the morning but by mid afternoon we were joined again by club paradise.  It seemed that the four boats were destined to keep in touch all the way through this wild landscape.