Leslie Thursday, July 10, 2008
We had to get going earlier today because we had to have all our gear at the lodge by 9:00 am.
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Unfortunately the rain fly of the tent and the ground cover underneath the tent were wet so we’ll have to put them up somewhere later to dry.
Robert thought it was too risky to cross the footbridge this morning because he was afraid that we’d get caught in a bear-jam and miss our flight. He stayed in the lodge by the fire. I went off in search of more bear pictures.
First I went to the platform. For awhile a sow and her cubs were hanging around the platofrm. They gave me some good photos.
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After awhile they moved into the distance so I went to the falls. The salmon were jumping.
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I watched this male bear on the top of the falls for nearly an hour.
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He got so close several times.
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Finally he caught a salmon.
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And he quickly took this salmon back to the banks to eat.
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It was difficult to avoid vertigo watching the bears at the falls. While I had my right eye to the view finder on the camera, my left eye was watching the falls and the other bears. Occasionally I had to leave the falls just to catch my balance.
There was one bear who I especially enjoyed watching. This guy stayed deep in the water (that was probably 40 degrees) waiting and waiting for the perfecft moment to catch a salmon. He was a pretty good fisherman but some of the bigger boys stole a number of his catches.
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See all the dots in the picture just above, those are mosquitoes!
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Thief!
I think we mentioned a few days ago that instead of camping in a tent a visitor to Brooks Camp could stay in one of the cabins. Here’s a picture of the cabin that you can rent for $300 PER PERSON per day – maximum of 2 nights per season.
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Our tent site cost only $8.00 per night.
Our last big thrill was to see a momma bear and three new cubs. I understood that these cubs were born this spring. This was the first time that the rangers had seen his spring’s cubs. Some of the cubs we’ve seen earlier were either born in January 2008 or were yearlings, i.e., 18 months old. These cubs were very small. Momma bear was very protective, yet she needed to fish. She seemed to prefer to stay near the bridge where the humans were rather than stray too far upstream near the male bears.
While we had lunch in the lodge, Robert had stepped out the back for a bit and I got to see the momma and cubs walk up the path towards the lodge. A ranger was going ballistic! She was trying to herd the bears away from the lodge and the people back in to the lodge. Maybe 15 minutes later, the sow brought her cubs right up between the lodge and the cabins. I ran to the other end of the lodge to grab our camera and missed the shot but Robert got to see the cubs up close. What a thrill! The rangers herded the bears away from the lodge towards the water. Maybe 30 minutes later the while we were boarding our floatplane we saw the same mamma bear and new cubs on the peninsula. I took this picture out the window of the floatplane.
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Robert got to act as co-piolet on our floatplane trip back to King Salmon.
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Thursday, July 10, 2008
Back to Anchorage
Robert, Thursday, July 10
Today was the day to return to civilization. Our flight by floatplane was scheduled for 1:00 p.m. but our luggage had to be back at the lodge by 9:00. The reason is that they start flying passengers in around 8:30 and no one wants to leave that early. Therefore, on the early return flights, they just haul luggage. By 1:00 they start hauling people and with no luggage they can put more people on the planes. I hung out at the lodge while Leslie went off to take some more pictures. We brought enough memory cards to hold about 1,600 pictures and she still had over 100 remaining! As we had to pack every thing up for the early flight to King Salmon, we decided to eat in the lodge. While we were eating there was a loud commotion outside. It was a ranger yelling at everyone to get inside. A sow with three small cubs walked by within 10 feet of window in the lodge where we were eating. Unfortunately, Leslie rushed to get the camera at the other end of the lodge and missed a great shot out the window. There were the first of this year’s cubs we saw. All of the previous cubs were 18 months old while these were much smaller and only six months old. We got back to King Salmon and our flight to Anchorage was on time. This was important to us as the flight was due in Anchorage at 5:00 p.m. and the clinic where Molly and Cody were being boarded closed at 6:00. We wanted to get to pick them up rather than making them spend another night there. The luggage quickly arrived, I got the truck from the parking lot, picked up Leslie and the baggage, and we headed for the clinic. We made it with time to spare. We made it to the trailer and I headed for the hot showers. After that it was dinner and bed.
Today was the day to return to civilization. Our flight by floatplane was scheduled for 1:00 p.m. but our luggage had to be back at the lodge by 9:00. The reason is that they start flying passengers in around 8:30 and no one wants to leave that early. Therefore, on the early return flights, they just haul luggage. By 1:00 they start hauling people and with no luggage they can put more people on the planes. I hung out at the lodge while Leslie went off to take some more pictures. We brought enough memory cards to hold about 1,600 pictures and she still had over 100 remaining! As we had to pack every thing up for the early flight to King Salmon, we decided to eat in the lodge. While we were eating there was a loud commotion outside. It was a ranger yelling at everyone to get inside. A sow with three small cubs walked by within 10 feet of window in the lodge where we were eating. Unfortunately, Leslie rushed to get the camera at the other end of the lodge and missed a great shot out the window. There were the first of this year’s cubs we saw. All of the previous cubs were 18 months old while these were much smaller and only six months old. We got back to King Salmon and our flight to Anchorage was on time. This was important to us as the flight was due in Anchorage at 5:00 p.m. and the clinic where Molly and Cody were being boarded closed at 6:00. We wanted to get to pick them up rather than making them spend another night there. The luggage quickly arrived, I got the truck from the parking lot, picked up Leslie and the baggage, and we headed for the clinic. We made it with time to spare. We made it to the trailer and I headed for the hot showers. After that it was dinner and bed.
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