The Eagle Watching Trip

During Mum's last visit we went up North to the Upper Skagit area so Mum and Frost could go on a Bald Eagle watching raft ride. It has taken me a while to upload the pictures but here they are. In the first shot, Mum and Frost are about to board the bus from the meeting area to the launch site. The bus had a large black fin on the back in honor of its name Orca 2. At first, Frost was worried that I was not coming with him. He was also upset about all the layers of clothing he was being asked to wear. Frost does not like scratchy or hot clothing so he wore it on condition he could take it off if he became hot.


As you can see from this picture of the scenery. It was not exactly hot country. The river was snow-melt and there was still snow on the ground in the shade when we went upriver from Concrete.
Here are the "raft" crew on a tea break by the river. They saw about 10 eagles during the trip although it was not peak season.


Frost was very happy to be the lookout and called out warnings when he saw white water or anything significant. I only found out after the trip that he was not fitted with a child lifejacket. This one would not have been any good if they fell in. I have often said that if we travel to Indonesia with the kids we will take our own life jackets. That was since the leaky creaky fishing boat trip I took into the deep ocean with no form of life preserver on board. One motor was swamped, the swells were heavy and I was estimating how long I could float before I came within sight of land. Frost did not seem to face these anxieties on the trip although the water would have been a lot colder here.

Ah, an eagle. The greatest concentration of eagles was at the dam runoff where salmon are often killed being churned through water turbines. The eagles gather to eat the remains. We saw 5 eagles at the dam wall.


After the trip, Wren and I met Frost at the downriver landing. Frost is holding Wren back from entering the river as he searches for stones to throw.

Here the boys are throwing stones together.