We awoke early so we could get ready for the flight to Katmai to see
the Grizzly. We arrived at Bald Mtn Air at 8:30 AM and had an hour
orientation on what we were going to see. There were 16 of us going
on two planes; a beaver and an otter. We were on the otter which held
10 people.
The trip there was mild. There was little wind and the ocean was
calm. Mt. Augustine was putting out steam and we were hoping there
would be no eruption.
There are two landing sites at Brooks Camp at Katmai; a lake, which is
near the visitor center / lodge, and a beaver pond. The beaver pond
is the preferred landing site because there is a bridge between the
National Park Visitor Center that sometimes has "bear jams" on it. A
bear jam is caused when a bear comes down the river and the bridge is
closed. Its closed because they try to keep people at least 50 yards
from the bears and if one is near the bridge, its closed. If we land
on the beaver pond, we have access to the BEST viewing areas without
having to worry about the bear jams. Unfortunately for us, we had to
land on the lake near the vc. I didn't actually mind because that
meant I was definitely going to get my NPS stamp for Katmai from
Brooks Camp.
As soon as we landed we spotted a bear about 500 yards down the
lakefront. We were excited about our adventure. Prior to visiting
the falls, we were required to attend a NPS presentation on bear
etiquette and then we had an early snack. We were told to meet at
3:30 PM so off we went. WIthin the first 20 yards, we spied a bear on
the beach which paralleled our path. We walked in its direction. It
was a sow with two cubs. We were initially the required 50 yds away
but it then turned and walked towards us. Ruth and I moved back but
another guy stood his ground and snapped pictures. The cubs started
running right at him and he just sat there. They ended up about 5
yards from him and he just took photos. He is sooooooo lucky that the
mother didn't decide he was a threat.
We then continued on toward the bridge. As we approached the corner,
we saw a bear bouncing in a tree about 30 yards to our left. A ranger
was approaching from the bridge telling us to get back. We obliged
and she suggested a back trail that would allow us to get to and cross
the bridge. About 7 of us took off for it but, as we popped up near
the bridge, the sow and two cubs had come too close and that had
closed the bridge. We had to return to the original spot and wait
again!!
The bears meandered into the marsh and milled around about. They
moved on in about 15 minutes so they reopened the bridge. We wasted
no time crossing and heading toward the falls.
The upper falls has a limit of 40 people on the viewing platform and a
time limit of 1 hour. We were put on a list to visit the upper falls
but while we waited we were allowed to visit the riffles platform.
There is really little point to me trying to describe the next 2.5
hours. We saw upwards of 16 bears at a time fishing, fighting,
posturing, jawing, yawning, and stealing each other's fish. We could
smell the bears they were so close and, in a few cases, we could hear
the fish's bones crunch as the bears ripped them apart.
The photo's will be posted ASAP.
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Todd Ryan; Hudson, MA
Westborough HS Science Teacher
MSF RiderCoach
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