Triumph Bay is a deglaciated fjord extending south from the Alan Reach of Gardner Canal into the Kitimat Ranges of the Coast Mountains, and forms an estuary at the mouth of the Triumph River, about 89 miles (143 km) southeast of Prince Rupert and 42 miles (68 km) south of Kitimat, British Columbia. Triumph Bay is named after the British trading sloop Triumph, which in 1874 was employed by the Canadian government to ferry James Richardson of the Geological Survey of Canada to Gardner Canal. There he assisted Marcus Smith, deputy engineer of Canadian Pacific Railway, in examining the inlet during surveys of British Columbia’s coastline aimed at selecting a suitable terminus for the transcontinental railway. The Hudson’s Bay Company steamer Otter, placed at Smith’s disposal, departed from Victoria and rendezvoused with the sloop—anchored in the bay with Richardson on board. The Otter then towed Triumph to Kemano Bay, where the geological and survey parties landed and the vessels awaited their return. The Coast Mountains are a major range within the Pacific Coast Ranges, extending from southwestern Yukon through Southeast Alaska and along nearly the entire British Columbia coast south to the Fraser River. They consist of an amalgamation of deformed igneous and metamorphosed pre-Paleogene terranes that originated from diverse locations. The Kitimat Ranges are one of three main subdivisions of the Coast Mountains, alongside the Pacific Ranges to the south and the Boundary Ranges to the north. They lie between the Nass River and Portland Inlet to the north and the Bella Coola River and Burke Channel to the south, and are bounded to the east by the Hazelton Mountains and to the west by the north coastal archipelago. The ranges include the ancestral homeland of the Haisla, who mostly reside in the present-day village of Kitamaat at the head of Douglas Channel.

Indigenous Haisla have inhabited British Columbia’s North Coast for at least 9,000 years. Today, the Haisla comprise two bands: the Kitamaat of the upper Douglas and Devastation Channels, and the Kitlope of the upper Princess Royal Channel and Gardner Canal. Gardner Canal is one of the principal inlets on the British Columbia coast. This embayment, a side-inlet of the larger Douglas Channel, measures about 56 miles (90 km) long; combined with the Douglas Channel, the total length reaches 200 miles (320 km), making it one of the largest fjord complexes in the world. The canal’s entrance is concealed behind Hawkesbury Island and is accessible via Devastation Channel or Varney Passage, which form the island’s northeast and southeast flanks. The canal was named in 1793 by Captain George Vancouver in honor of his friend and former commander, Alan Gardner. Lieutenant Joseph Whidbey was the first to survey Gardner Canal’s wild, rugged terrain using small boats from HMS Discovery. He reported to Vancouver that ‘the face of the country was almost an entirely barren waste, nearly destitute of wood and verdure, and presenting to the eye one rude mass of almost naked rocks, rising into rugged mountains, more lofty than any he had ever seen, whose towering summits, seeming to overhang their bases, gave them a tremendous appearance.’ The head of Gardner Canal generally freezes over in winter. In February 1876, a surveying party from the Canadian Pacific Railway examined the inlet as a potential terminus for the line. They found 8–18 inches (20–46 cm) of ice extending 25 miles (40 km) down the inlet; as it did not open for navigation until April, the site was summarily rejected.

The Triumph River drains a 25,946-acre (10,500 ha) watershed originating from cirque lakes at 2,595 feet (791 m) in the Coast Mountains. It flows generally north for 8 miles (13 km) to Triumph Lake—a 1.6‑mile (2.6‑km) long body—then another 1.2 miles (2 km) to a waterfall before entering Triumph Bay. The valley is wide in its lower reaches and steepens inland of Triumph Lake. Extensive timber clear-cutting has affected the watershed, and recent landslides are evident on steep, logged slopes. Landslides are common in British Columbia’s mountainous terrain and are exacerbated by heavy precipitation, logging, and road building, which destabilize soils—especially on steep slopes. In coastal temperate rainforests, many landslides occur in clear‑cut areas, often as a result of root decay following logging. Logging increases the probability of landslides by a factor of 10 to 35 over natural rates, adversely affecting stream morphology, fish habitat, water quality, and the survival of fish eggs and fry. Pacific salmon are absent from the Triumph River because a waterfall near the mouth forms a migration barrier; however, steelhead trout inhabit the river above the falls, where sport fishing is restricted to catch-and‑release due to management concerns. Steelhead are ocean‑going, predatory fish with a typical lifespan of four to six years. All wild steelhead hatch in gravel‑bottomed, fast‑flowing, well‑oxygenated rivers and streams. Some remain in freshwater throughout their lives and are known as rainbow trout, while migratory steelhead typically grow larger. Young steelhead feed predominantly on zooplankton before transitioning to molluscs, such as squid, and other fish such as capelin and herring. Rainbow trout and steelhead are divergent ecotypes that are genetically identical but differ in life‑history strategies: steelhead can migrate to the open ocean and return to their natal stream on multiple occasions. Habitat degradation and overfishing are the main threats to steelhead and other anadromous fish populations. Degradation includes removal of riparian vegetation, sedimentation, altered instream flows, water quality degradation, instream wood removal, and poor estuarine habitats. Read more here and here. Explore more of Triumph Bay and Gardner Canal here: