Bears Bears and more Bears!!! Katmai National Park

Day 19… Katmai National Park bear viewing trip J

Today we took a puddle jumper, and this was a serious puddle jumper to Katmai National Park.  It took very little water to take off and land.  After our orientation to where we were going in Katmai NP; the far northern region of the park/preserve, we geared up in hip boots and rain pants as well as layers of clothing for a day on the tundra.

Our flight over lasted about an hour and a half with Bald Mountain Air and was totally smooth sailing across Cook Inlet, past St Augustine Volcano and over Katmai.  We could see Kodiak Island off in the distance.  Very cool flight!  The area in the park where we were headed was primarily tundra and permafrost.  If you’ve never walked on permafrost, it’s like walking on spongy peat moss with a thick layer of moss on top.  It is very springy but also very uneven.  From a distance it is very bland looking but when looked at up close it is actually very pretty. 

We hiked a bit to get down to Moraine Creek and once there we hiked around a bit more but for the most part we sat on the riverbank and just watched the bears.  We stayed as a group and the bears pretty much ignored us and went about their business of getting fattened up for winter.  Once in awhile when one of them was bringing a salmon out of the stream, they would look at us and think… no way this is my fish and I’m going back in the bush to eat it, but others would walk right in front of us and eat it. When a bear would walk within 10-20 feet of us, Gary our guide called them Alaskan drive-bys. The bears pretty much only eat the eyeballs, the brain, and a fat pad near the tail, then they would strip the skin and eat the fat under the skin and leave the meat of the fish for the sea gulls.  The bears were predictable just like our guide said they would be.  We were in a remote area, unlike Brooks River Falls that has viewing platforms, etc.  We hiked and just parked ourselves on the riverbank and waited for the bears to come to us.  They walk and swim up and down the river all day looking for salmon.  It’s interesting that all of the bear have different techniques for catching fish, some swim under water and come up with one, others jump at them and still others paw at them.

We got to watch the bears for almost 5 hours then hiked back to the plane for the flight back to Homer.  I’m exhausted, very wind-burned but what an adventure!!!

The photos are all taken with my little instamatic camera since my good camera bit the dust last week.

 Our plane

 Big boy eating his salmon

 OK, so I always thought a bear $h!t in the woods!!!

 Sow and her cubbies

 I call these guys Cinnamon and Sugar

 Mt St Augustine

The Homer Spit snaking out into Cook Inlet

Day 18 - Homer & Hiking in Kachemak Bay State Park (July 29)

Hiking in Kachemak Bay State Park 

Today I wasn’t sure what I was going to do…  Tom was going Halibut fishing since Homer is the Halibut capital of the world.  I thought he could definitely catch enough for both of us (2 is the daily limit, usually at least 30 lbs of fish) and I wasn’t sure what we would do with an extra 30 lbs of it if I also went fishing.  It was a gorgeous morning so I tried to book a kayak trip but just couldn’t get anything that fit, so I ended up going hiking.  Kachemak State Park is stunning; there are many glaciers and many peaks above the tree line.  It backs up to Lake Clark National Park but is only accessible by air or water.

The lady that helped me book my water taxi and suggested the hike said that the trails were used by a lot of people.  Well, I did meet a lot of people on the water taxi that were with a hiking group called counrtywalkers.com.  I need to look it up, but they were all very nice, mostly women and several were from Michigan.  I really couldn’t tag along with them since they were paying for a guide, but I figured if I got eaten by a bear they would find me along the trail.  I’ve never felt comfortable hiking alone and have only done it once before in Northern California in the Redwood National Park last summer but there were no bears there.  I started hiking and was doing ok until I entered a densely forested area and had to walk over a couple of huge piles of bear scat, definitely bear scat – it was totally full of half digested berries!  I figured if I started to sing I would probably attract the bears, they would want to attack to get me to stop, so I started hitting my hiking poles together.  I felt like Christopher Robin in the hundred acre wood with his marching sticks.  I counted 30 some piles of bear scat, mostly black bear judging by the size of it, but there was this one pizza sized pile that I’m guessing must have been from a grizzly, a big grizzly!  I never thought in a million years that I’d become a bear scat aficionado!

The hike led to a glacial lake that was beautiful, the temperature dropped like 30 degrees once I approached it.  There were ice floes all over the lake and I could hear the glacier calving.  Some of the ice floes came near shore and I was able to grab them.  The glacial ice was the most pure thing I have ever witnessed, well except for a newborn baby.  It was the clearest, hardest ice… and it tasted so good!!  It was absolutely crystal clear, and who knows when it was frozen???

The rest of my hike was unremarkable.  I ended up on a beach and had to wait for nearly 2 hours for my water taxi back to Homer.  It was too long, but not long enough to hike an additional trail so I hung out on this beautiful beach.  A group of guys that had been backpacking were also waiting and one of them found out that I was a nurse.  One of the guys in their group had sat on a thorn so guess what I was asked to do???  The question is, did I remove the thorn or didn’t I??

The water taxi was 35 minutes late and I was beginning to think that I was going to be forgotten on the beach but there was actually a park ranger also waiting for a ride back. so i figured I 'd be ok.  It was a long day for both Tom and me.  He caught his halibut so now half our freezer is full of fish :-)

Stay tuned for my next blog all about watching bears in Katmai National Park tomorrow!!

Kate

 Hiking to Grewingk Glacier in Kachemak Bay State Park

 The Grewingk Glacier and ice floes

 Ice floes

 Glacial ice, it tastes amazing

 More glacial ice, how pretty and crystal clear

 More ice floes

 The hike out to the beach on the other side of the inlet

 The beach where the water taxi picks up

Beautiful beach... called Hawaii Beach and there were 2 people that actually went swimming!!

Homer, Ak (Day 17)

Day 17 (July 28) Seward to Homer, Ak

This morning we woke up to a bright sun shining day, I’ve learned quickly that these days don’t happen all that frequently on the Kenai Peninsula.  I had a hearty breakfast (thank you Tom) while watching the mountains and glaciers from my breakfast table.  We packed up to head off to Homer.  The trailer was parked up on a little hill so it was really tough to get it re-hitched to the truck.  The same guy that helped us get it parked in the spot in the beginning helped us get it re-hitched.  It worked well for him since his battery died and he needed a charge.

It was a gorgeous day so we stopped at Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park.  It is the only access road into the park.  We kayaked in the park a couple of days ago but had to get there via water taxi.  It was a short hike to the glacier, it’s a relatively small glacier in comparison to Root Glacier that we hiked to in Wrangell-St Elias NP earlier but there are many other glaciers that we could see, all beginning in the Harding Ice Field. 

The drive to Homer was pretty mediocre in comparison to most of our other drives since we’ve been in Alaska.  But today, there was not a single incident where I had to keep my eyes closed and use my imaginary brake while going down 9% grades with multiple S curves.  We are at another campground overlooking the water; this time it is overlooking Kachemak Bay.  The mountains across the bay are larger than those in Kenai Fjords across the water from our site in Seward, but there we were totally surrounded by mountains.  Homer is built on the side of a hill, but the Homer Spit is where everyone hangs out, well the tourists that is…  It is a tourist trap just like any other touristy area like Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg TN, Mackinaw Island, etc.  There are all of the tee shirt shops, fudge stores, etc.  But this is where all of the fishing charters, kayak charters, water taxis, etc are located. 

Tomorrow, Tom is going out halibut fishing since Homer IS the halibut capital of the world.  The limit is 2, but halibut can get as big as a barn door, seriously!!  I hope he gets 2 but certainly not as big as a barn door.  I cleared out the top shelf of the freezer that would be plenty!

I’m not certain what I’m going to do tomorrow, perhaps another kayak trip or I may take the water taxi over to Kachemak State Park and do some hiking.  I can use all of the training I can get before we backpack Chilkoot (we start 2 weeks from today).

Saturday, we are flying over to Katmai NP to do bear viewing.  I am so excited about this trip.  It should be amazing!!!!

Kate

 Ah... my view while eating breakfast this morning

 At the toe of Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park (50 degrees)

 Kenai Lake, note the color - it's due to "glacial milk" a silt that runs off with the glacial melt

Kenai River, silver salmon run

 Russian Orthodox Church and cemetery from the late 1800s, still in use today

Lake Clark National Park across Cook Inlet