Fun and scary day filled with moments in time and adventures to talk about for a lifetime! First thing today Tim and I had a great time beach-combing near the ferry pier. I really wanted to find a small glass buoy but was happy with all the driftwood that we collected. The best place to find the glass buoys are closer to Homer Spit and inaccessible to us. While beach-combing we were also able to see many bald eagles flying around while on the beach.
On the way back to basecamp, to check on Jett and to have lunch, we cruised by the bridge in Lutak. We watched a few people catch some pink salmon. One guy didn’t want his, because he wanted a sockeye salmon, so he gave it to us. Guess that means fresh fish for dinner!
After taking care of Jett, cleaning and prepping the fish, we went back to the Lutak bridge to fish. It was raining but we didn’t care. Everyone had left and we strangely (hmmm) had the place to ourselves. Tim caught and landed a pink salmon right away. I hooked one and lost it.
Next thing we know the wildlife photographers were on the bridge. Because a bear had come down to the other side of the river from us. It trailed the edge of the river away from us and disappeared. So with heads on a swivel we continued to fish until next thing we knew a bear was crossing on the bridge, almost to the end, heading our way. Tim ran up the bank to head it off while I grabbed our gear and followed. We did not want to be caught on the river with a bear to our back.
By the time I got to Tim and the truck, Tim had scared the bear across the road. Otherwise the bear would have come down to the river at us. Then the bear came back out of the woods towards us! We both yelled at him and away he went down the road. This would be the first time Tim had ever readied bear spray to use. And the first time we both had to yell at a bear. Tim saved my life again!
Once the bear had cleared we went back to fishing. Some of the others who had been fishing earlier came back to fish. We were told they all had left earlier because a bear had come too close. Now we know why everyone had left. Then as we continued to fish we had two eagles fly over our heads very low. Almost in slow motion. What a spectacular moment in time! Fly fishing, catching pink salmon and fighting off bears all the while eagles were flying about overhead!! We are actually in the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.
In all seriousness … Tim would take care and watch from a high viewpoint to make sure the bear didn’t return while I fished. He watched him in the far distance eating berries and running along the coast. When it was time to depart I took watch as Tim cleaned the fish. The process is clean, rinse, chunk and toss carcasses into deep fast moving water. At the end of our fishing today it was 2-1 Tim. All pink salmon. I only got pictures of Tim’s first fish caught as we had no time to mess about with bears so close. So with the one fish we were given and what we caught we came home with four fish for the day!!
On our return back to basecamp the afternoon fish count was in progress at the weir. Well obviously a big bear wanted in on it too. The two fish counters present, out on the weir, were yelling at the bear to move on as we passed.
Interestingly enough this is the most active bears we have seen. There’s no bear boxes in camp for tent dwellers. Yet all the bear proof garbage cans and even the dumpster are chained down. Whoa. This is a first for us to see!
It was definitely an adventure filled day. We believe we saw three possibly four bears in close proximity today. I think we are done fishing with bears and will move on to a different location tomorrow.
Dinner: Pink Salmon served over Creamy Chicken Rice
Sunset: No available data.
Sunrise: No available data.
Elevation: No available data.
Miles from home:
No available data.
Wildlife viewings:
Numerous Eagles
Pink Salmon
River Otters
Bears and more bears!
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