Katmai
Like I said earlier, Kevin had mentioned from the get go
about going to Katmai National Park. You
can sense the theme of this trip. The
only way to get there is by float plane, but it is one unique area with the
highest concentration of bears in the world.
There are two best viewing times.
On is in June, when the bears are hungry from hibernation and the first
run of salmon come to spawn. The second
is in September when the last run of salmon is occurring, the weather is
cooling down, and the bears are gorging on salmon for the winter.
Anyway, we googled the best ride out and found Bald Mountain
Air. They allowed you the longest time
on the ground and you could bring yourself and whatever equipment needed, as
long as it doesn’t exceed 300 pounds.
Our first attempt was on Wednesday, but with 60 mph wind gusts and
rain/fog it was not a go. To get there
the plan will weave in and out of 6,000 foot mountains. The pilot said that with fog, they have to
fly at about 8,000 feet to go over the mountains and at that level there is an
ice issue. Better safe than sorry.
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| Augustine Volcano, steam at the top |
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| Homer Spit with Beluga Lake in foreground |
On Friday the weather had turned pleasant with no rain,
great visibility, and not a bad temperature (about 45-60°). We had been camping in the Float Plane
parking lot on Lake Beluga, so we were up and ready to fly. The hour and half flight takes you past
Augustine Mountain, one of the youngest and the most active volcano in the
Aleutian Arc. It last erupted in 2006.
Bears. We thought
that we had seen a lot of bears in Denali, but they were everywhere here. When we first landed at the beach, there was
one on the beach just a few hundred yards away.
I knew it was going to be a good day.
First up, bear training by the park rangers consisting of powerpoint and
video of how to interact with bears. It
is mandatory that everyone does this training.
In Denali, you were supposed to keep 300 yards away from bears, here it
is 50 yards. Not that these bears are
trained, but they are so exposed to people that there are somewhat different
rules here.
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| Bear on the beach welcoming us to Katmai |
Leaving the training center, you go down a path and across a
footbridge to Brooks Falls. This is the
iconic bear viewing area. There is even
a webcam here that posts video of bears fishing in the Brooks river. You can access it at: https://explore.org/livecams/brown-bears/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls. There is also a webcam set up at the bridge.
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| One fat bear |
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| Don't mess with my fish |
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| Observation platform at Brooks Falls |
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| Who stole my fish? |
We hiked up the trail and watched about 7 bears at the falls
as they fed and interacted. The bridge I
mentioned closes regularly when a bear is near.
They have rangers stationed at both ends to keep watch on bears and
don’t hesitate to close it down. We left
the falls area early (it was kind of crowded) to head back so as not to be late
back to the landing area. Get to the
bridge and it is closed. A mother bear
and two cubs decided to take a nap about 10 feet off the trail. We are waiting around at the bridge platform
initially not seeing too much, then bears started coming in from all over the
place. At one point we had about 14
bears at different locations, including the ones that were sleeping. All were feeding on salmon. At this point in the season, the bears are
fat. I mean Walmart at midnight
fat. They are moving slow and are very
selective in what they eat. When they
get a salmon, which is quite easy for them since the salmon are on their last
leg and not moving too fast, the bears will bite it to see if there are any
eggs. If not, they drop it. If so, they
will eat the skin, eat the eggs, and eat the internal organs. They don’t waste time on the meat, they just
want high calorie energy food.
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| Fat mama bear |
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| Momma and baby bears that kept bridge closed for hours |
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| This is how bears fish |
The bridge finally opened after about 3 hours and we made it
back to the plane and the 1.5 hour trip back to Beluga Lake. Kevin and I jumped in the RV and headed back
to Anchorage for the return trip home.
Our last night was spent on the Turnagain, but not before we got a steak
at our favorite steakhouse in Alaska.
The Food Network named this place one of the best restaurants in America
and described the Double Musky Inn in Girdwood as the top place for steaks in
the USA and more specifically named the Pepper Steak as the best. And it is good.
And now the tough part, packing up to leave. Actually after two weeks, we are about ready
to see family again. Hurricane Irma has
been threatening Florida for about a week and my attention to Alaska has been
affected. Turns out the Tallahassee
airport was closed on Sunday, on my day to arrive, so I had to land in Atlanta
and drive home in order to beat out the storm.
Kevin got in a few hours later for a great reunion with his family prior
to heading home and also boarding up for the impending arrival of Irma on
Monday.
One more post to follow, with some summary info and a few
photos that didn’t make it on the blogs to date.
