Life List:
Wild Alaska by boat
A brown bear notices Scott in his kayak taking photos.
Bears, Bears and More Bears
The day starts out misty and foggy but just as we reach Red Bluff Bay, the fog parts, as if it has been awaiting our arrival. We pass a spectacular waterfall as we cruise the passageway
to the hidden cove. When we arrive at the end, a sailboat and a private yacht are already moored. We pick our spot, and shortly afterwards another small yacht hunkers in between
us and the sailboat. Not quite as isolated as we’d have liked, but still enough distance to not be too invasive on our “personal space.”
We launch the kayaks so we can explore the end of the cove, where a river proves a daunting challenge to loads of salmon wildly trying to go upstream to spawn. We hope to see some brown bears in a more up-close-and-personal way. To be honest, I’m a bit nervous about the idea. Binoculars work just fine for me, thank you very much. But after the few sightings we’ve had from afar, Scott is determined to get “the bear photo” this evening.
We kayak up the stream, which is so chock full of salmon that I expect either a leaping salmon to tip my kayak or land smack in the middle of my cockpit. The idea of fresh salmon makes my mouth water. But, alas, that’s not in the plan, and the salmon are clearly too smart for that! It’s no wonder how the bear can scoop up the salmon and be completely satiated every meal. I’ve never seen so many fish in a stream before.
As I’m floating in an eddy, I look beside me and see dozens of salmon, all at least two feet long, most up to three feet long.
Up ahead, we see a bear saunter across the beach. It’s quite a ways up the river, but near enough to see with the naked eye and know exactly what we’re looking at. We paddle closer, then pull over into an eddy to allow the only other person around the chance to pick his viewing spot—he’s ahead of us in a paddle boat and it seems good etiquette to let him get first choice. After observing for a while, he backs out and comes towards me. He tells me that there are two bears, as far as he can tell. He also mentions that in the morning, there will probably be many people out viewing the bears, as this is a well-known spot. He heads back down the river, wishing us luck in getting closer.
Scott moves ahead, but I hang back a bit since he’s got the camera that’s going to document this encounter. As I’m floating in an eddy, I look beside me and see dozens of salmon, all at least two feet long, most up to three feet long. They scatter when I dip my paddle in the water, but once I settle in to watch for the bear, they return and just hang out alongside my kayak. I am tempted to reach out and try to catch one by hand, but I know that is a silly notion. Or is it?
While I contemplate this thought, the bear returns. Scott is excited and snapping pictures. Truthfully, I am more unsettled than I thought I’d be. The eddy I am in is next to a tree-lined shore, and I feel completely exposed to a bear coming out to fish. So I paddle across the stream to the rocky beach, figuring at least I’d see something coming in time to react and get out of there. Scott eventually signals me to come up and join him.
Afterwards, Scott
radios me and says, “Well, I just got
charged by a bear and lived to tell about it!”
I paddle up, and we discuss whether we should head back. As we’re bobbing in yet another eddy, we see a hint of movement. The tree stump in front of us is not a tree stump at all, but rather the bear, sitting there in the middle of the river, his back to us, as he waits for salmon to come his way. Suddenly, the bear turns and races straight at us. My heart pounds ferociously. The bear snatches up a monstrous, wiggling salmon, shakes it back and forth, carries it to the beach, rips it apart and chows it down.
Well, that solves the problem of whether we’d gotten all the photos of bears that Scott wants! We stay for about another half hour or so. A few times, the bear notices us but he is so intent on eating his dinner that he mostly ignores us. At one point, he walks toward Scott and gets a bit too close for my comfort zone; I have to force myself not to yell out to him to be careful. I certainly don’t want to create a problem that wouldn’t have existed otherwise. Later, as we paddle back down the stream, we hit some rocks that weren’t there on the way in. The tide is going out. The trip out is a bit more adventurous than the trip in, as we dodge rocks and I even get hung up twice and have to free myself.
The next morning, Vic notices a bear on shore, so he and Scott prepare the kayaks. This turns out to be the day that Scott gets his best bear photos of the trip. Last night was nothing compared to this morning. The bear is near the mouth of the stream where it dumps into the cove. Scott takes pictures of Vic kayaking toward shore with the bear in the distance, the bear eating salmon, the bear noticing Scott in his kayak, the bear doing a bluff charge at Scott, the bear going back to fishing after it’s convinced Scott will keep his distance. Afterwards, Scott radios me and says, “Well, I just got charged by a bear and lived to tell about it!” Oh jeez, I don’t want to hear that! It takes about 20 minutes for Scott’s heart rate to return to normal, but he says it was an incredible experience that he wouldn’t have missed for the world.
First Day | Fiords, Glaciers and Icebergs | Secluded Coves
Steller Sea Lions | Bears, Bears and More Bears
Fishing Villages and Hot Springs | Harbor Seals
Rainforests, High-Alpine Lakes and Beaches
A Whale of a Tale | Epilogue | Your Turn: Charter a Yacht
Alaska Photo Galleries