Hyder Bears, AK - August 26 - 30

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According to Wikipedia, Hyder is both Alaska’s southern and easternmost town. It is a 14.8 sq. mile hunk of land with a population of 90 +/- that probably wouldn’t have a name except that it is a part of Alaska bordered and isolated by Canada. There are no US Customs, only a Canadian check point when leaving. Without a community center, it felt more like a settlement. Across the canal in Canada is the town of Stewart that supports both populations with schools, restaurants and grocery stores. The surrounding forests of both towns felt tropical with moss, lichen and mold coating everything from abandoned cars, buses, boats, roofs and awnings. Plugging in at our first campground, the 5” x 5” utility pole rotten at the base fell over. Our second night was at a well named campground, Camp Run-A-Muck. Didn’t help that it was raining for most of our stay.

The draw to Hyder was all about the bears and bear watching at the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site managed by the USDA Forest Service. This area is thick with bear activity, both brown and black, during the salmon spawning season. Fun to watch and photograph but a bit scary walking to and from the van. Regardless, I could have stayed for a week for the wonderful photo ops.

More smoke and haze on down the road towards the North Cascades.

Skagway, Yukon & BC - August 23 - 25

Leaving Haines, we took the ferry around the corner to Skagway loping off more than 300 miles of driving. Haines was a real community balancing quality of life with the commercial benefit of cruise ships by allowing no more than two smaller ships per week. In contrast, Skagway, a renovated gold rush town, had 3 huge Princess/Norwegian ships at berth when we docked. Many of the buildings are owned and maintained by the Klondike Gold Rush Historic Park. Interesting but more like Disney, we only spent a night and crossed back over to the Yukon in Canada completing the big circle back onto the Alaska Hwy.

Retracing our route for a short distance and another sleep at Teslin Lake CG, we turned south on the Cassiar Hwy into BC. There have been many wildfires some still active so we didn’t know what to expect but knew we would limit our stops through this area. Hyder was the last planned stay in Alaska.

Haines - August 19 - 22

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It’s best you hear this from me first because undoubtedly there will be other variations of the story to be told. I have continually missed out on some of the closer bear encounters that Steve, Ellen and Harry have had. Some have been on the Denali bus where mom and cubs have passed around the bus and in Harry’s case, the bear that came down the river when he & Nina were out for a walk. Today that changed. 

In Haines, we are staying at Chilkoot River State Campground which runs along the river and lake of the same name. Midway down the river is a fish weir that was constructed for the sole purpose of counting and keeping track of the 5 different species of salmon that pass through. There are about 10 brown bears in the area that fish the river and have figured out they can drive the fish against the rebar that spans the weir so this has become one of the most accessible places to view bears. Wonderful I think. The brown bears along the coast are called coastal brown bears whereas in the interior, grizzly is the name used. On several occasions, we have seen two bears along the river not far from fisherman and along the beach at the mouth of the river. They are 2 1/2 year old siblings recently pushed off by their mother who probably has new cubs and seem to be having problems adjusting to life on their own. We happened down a road when the Wildlife Fish & Game rangers were trying to teach them a lesson to leave a local neighborhood alone. This involved shouting and shooting them with sandbags. That was yesterday.

Today Harry & I arrived back at our campsite ahead of S & E. We had moved to a new campsite by the lake in the morning and I got out with Nina to walk down to the picnic table to check out the view. I looked over to the right and there was a bear at the end of our site standing on top of the dumpster. We both zoomed back to the van and safely inside, Harry & I looked out the back window at the bear. He walked over to us, stood up between the bike box on the back and the van, nose against the window and looked in. I was inches from the window, a perfect photo op and could only think it wouldn’t be good for him to see a person so I grabbed a pillow to put between me and the bear! He walked around to look in the side window and then we laid on the horn to back him off.

After he walked on to the next campsite, curious we drove out to see what he was up to. Two campsites up, the host site, he stood up and started pushing on the trailer, got down and snooped around to another trailer on the same site and really started pushing and pulling things out. At this point, the ranger who was looking for him arrived and again shot at him with the sandbags to try to drive him off. This is what they do to try to make an area uncomfortable for the bears so they move on. His sibling was circling around trying to stay with him but not being a nuisance. Unfortunately a fed bear is a dead bear. I hope this is not his fate. Keeping a campsite clean of food, dishes, grill and trash can determine what happens to these animals. When wildlife habituates to humans and become a nuisance, it forces the rangers to do something about it. For us, we will think twice about an evening/morning walk or trip alone to the loo, look around and carry bear spray. In fact on a trip to the toilet this a.m., there were scratches coming down both doors that looked the size of a bear paw. They were probably there before but now we start noticing these things.

It has been rainy during our time in Haines but there are museums, totems, stores, farmers market, migrating birds, fishing, haircuts, provisioning, laundry and many other things to keep us busy. Imagine going to a hammer museum - we did! Reservations are set for the ferry from Haines to Skagway on Wednesday the 23rd so more to come before we go.

Valdez & the Yukon - August 13 - 18

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Valdez is an amazing place. It is the northern most harbor that doesn’t freeze in the winter and gets 25’ of snow a year in town and 75’ at Thompson’s Pass coming down into Valdez. The southern terminal of the pipeline ends on the far side of the bay and brings an enormous amount of money into the town so schools, town departments and hospitals are very well funded.

Because we missed the ferry ride across Prince Williams Sound, I really wanted to go on another wildlife/glacier tour. We chose the Lu-Lu Belle, a 75’ custom built vessel that was originally designed as a fishing charter boat in the Puget Sound Area. As the regulations became more cumbersome Fred, the owner/captain, has been taking the boat up to Valdez for the past 20 summers for tours. The boat winters in Pt. Angeles, WA.

Aside from some great sightings of orcas and distance humpbacks, it really wasn’t about the wildlife. Fred talked the whole 9+ hours about everything you might want to know or not. I wanted to tell him to take a breath. What was really cool was going up into the fjord to the toe of Columbia Glacier. Fred picked his way through many chunks of ice to within a quarter mile of the face. As we were coming in, an iceberg close to the length of boat calved off a huge piece that caused the berg to rock straight up into the air, down, back up and down again. Unfortunately my camera wasn’t set up for video, I chose a lens too long and there were many heads on the bow to work around but have included some shots.

Leaving Valdez, we all headed up to Wrangell St. Elias National Park. It is the largest national park with 13.2 million acres, larger than Switzerland with higher mountains. Nabesna Road is one of only two roads into the park and our destination for a couple nights. Most of the park is only accessible by air, boat or on foot.

Central Kenai - August 7 - 12

Where did the time go? We have been moving around more than normal so it’s been hard to keep up. 

So far attempts to catch salmon have been hit or miss so Harry & I decided to go on a river salmon charter trip before we left the Kenai area. It was an interesting experience that neither one of us would repeat. We were in an open aluminum 25’ boat with another couple, Nina and the guide. It was cold and windy. The sockeye season was coming to an end and silvers barely starting. Harry out fished us all but the guide kept throwing his back because they were too far gone. That is they were at the end of their life cycle and the flesh was degrading. Harry caught a couple other fish that were knocked off by the guy sitting behind while my line was tangling w/his wife’s. Lesson 1 - get in the back seats. After 8.5 hours of sitting with a couple shore leaves and the other 2 caught their limit, we passed on the remaining 2 we could have taken and called it a day. Lesson 2 - go for the salmon in the ocean before they come upstream. One of the highlights was a mom brown bear ashore walking around up on two legs with 1 cub followed by a black bear.

Steve & Ellen wanted to move off the peninsula so they headed off to Whittier to hop on a ferry to Valdez. We planned to do the same 6 days later but decided not to risk losing the fish in the freezer which would have to be turned off for the 9-10 hour ferry ride. The weather also didn’t look good and it would have been a long ride for Nina so we drove the 250 miles around. It was a good choice, the landscape was beautiful and there will be fish for many dinners to come.

After staying in various different spots, some boon docking in pullouts, we arrived in Valdez on the 13th where S & E backtracked to join us.

Homer & Halibut - August 5 - 6

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Harry got his day on the water. A half day of fishing was still full leaving at 7 and returning around 2:30. On the shorter trips, they don't go out as far and target the smaller halibuts steaming out for 1.5 hours at 20 knots. Flat calm, bit of fog in the morning which cleared middle day. Harry got his 2 halibut which is the limit,  28" and 31". It's a gamble, do you throw back the smaller fish hoping the boat will stay out long enough to catch a bigger one? Nope, he kept them both. Good decision. Not really enough to ship out this time but we have some for a couple meals, shared w/S & E and more tucked away in the freezer. 

Homer sits on the end of Homer Spit, a sand and gravel strip of land that is most likely the remains of an ancient glacial moraine. Surrounded by the Pacific Ring of Fire, on a clear day you can see some of the 4 volcanos. One of the photos was taken from our "front yard" in one of the municipal beach campgrounds. Beautiful town.

Cooper Landing to Homer - August 2 - 4

After a couple nights at USFS Quartz Creek CG along the Sterling Hwy., we have arrived in Homer at a municipal city beach campground on Homer Spit. Halibut fishing, birding, Saturday market and exploring to follow.

Seward - July 30 - Aug 1

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Seward has many things - boats, birds, fish and fishing, sea mammals, glaciers, mountains, people, restaurants, aquarium and murals. Sarah Palin named Seward the capitol of murals but the true beauty is the mountains that come down to the long and narrow Resurrection Bay and the surrounding Kenai Fjords National Park. Cruise ships ghost in during early morning hours moving on by evening and lots of commercial, charter and recreational fishing boats coming and going. 

In 1964, an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the town. Instead of rebuilding by the water, the town was moved several blocks back to higher ground. Along the shore, large parking lots were created for RV parking with a walkway, benches, bridges, memorials and flowers stretching the length of the shoreline. From our perspective looking out, it was quite beautiful but there were lots of rigs beside and behind us. Our neighbors live in Wasilla and come down in their 5th wheel to spend the summer leaving or switching lots periodically when they’ve exceeded the 14 day limit. The draw for most is the fishing.

S, E & I took a wildlife tour aboard the Viewfinder with Capt. Justin and naturalist Eric on a Major Marine Tour while Harry walked the docks scouting out charters and later some fishing along Nash Rd. The Viewfinder is a 58’ boat, small enough to maneuver close to shore, fast averaging 21 knots and carries about 30 people with plenty of space to move around. 

Our voyage took us 150 miles out Resurrection Bay, around Harris Peninsula, through Granite Passage and Harris Bay to the end of the Northwestern Fjord and Glacier and back. The islands and waters were filled with horned and tufted puffins that come to nest as well as many other pelagic birds I have never seen before - marbled & Kittlitz’ murrelets, rhinoceros and parakeets auklets, pigeon guillemots, red-faced cormorants along with black oystercatchers, common murres, glaucous-winged gulls and more. There were humpbacks, a lone orca, Stellar sea lions, sea otters and harbor seals. The pod of orcas apparently got wiped out by the Valdez oil spill leaving the remaining male as the only survivor.

The charter boat research gave insight on booking a trip in Homer as well as the sobering cost of processing and mailing fish back home. All the fish in the photo were not Harry’s but soon that will change.

South to Anchorage Area - July 24 - 29

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Leaving Denali early, we had 5 to 6 days to explore and get chores done while not getting too far away from S & E. Having missed the Denali Highway on our way up, we explored about 30 miles to a BLM campground, Brushkana. This was enough to know it was worth a return trip should we ever find ourselves back in Alaska. The road is 100+ miles of gravel that follows the foothills and lakes of the Alaska Range. 

Wasilla became the business stop with one sleep at Walmarts. On to Little Sustina River Public Access, a Fish and Game property for our first salmon river fishing experience. The catch of the day was chum (dog salmon) and it was rainy so we moved down to Anchorage. With a tip that RV campgrounds weren’t particularly good around the city, we opted for Cabela’s with designated RV areas and services for traveling folks. More fishing at Ship Creek with an abundance of mud and pink salmon this time. Again not very good eating but we tried anyway, agreed and continued to catch only enough for Nina who thought they were great. I also picked up a fishing license at this point because sitting on the bank watching was too hard.

Our final days were south at Bird Creek CG on the Turnagain Arm. This was true combat fishing like you read about with people lining the banks casting lines everywhere and mud feet deep and so sticky that if you stand in one place long enough, you sink in deeper and can’t break the suction to get your feet and boots out. I saw one small child fall across the other side of the river. She lost her boots and got stuck. Dad tried to carry her out over his shoulder but with the combined weight, he couldn’t move. Someone else had to come help. This mud is like quicksand containing a lot of silt from the glaciers. They have bore tides in the Arm which is a wave of tide that comes in an hour or so after an extreme low tide. The tidal range can be as much as 38’ with an extremely high tide of 32.8’. There are many warnings not to go out on the sand flats where you can literally get stuck with an incoming tide with no one able to help you get out.

Fishing again produced just the pinks although some were getting an occasional silver salmon. Good for Nina but we gave up after a massive mud cleanup and awaited S & E’s arrival and move south to Seward.

Denali Finale - July 19 - 23

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Out for an early morning walk around the campground w/Nina this morning on the 23rd, there was a big fresh bear poop filled with berries and other matter. I take enough walks around the loops to know it wasn’t there 10 hours ago, probably not even 2 and wished I had the thermapen to know for sure. Well maybe not but it was extremely fresh. Teklanika CG is right along the Teklanika River. Because there wasn’t a lot of snow this past winter and little rain in the spring, the river is quite low and has become braided with gravel bars and low willows along the banks. This makes a great highway for a local wolf pack, caribou and apparently a lone male grizzly. Yesterday, S & E saw the bear as they crossed the bridge from their bus somewhere around 9:30. I also was gone for the day out to Eielson Visitor Ctr. on an early bus hoping to see lots of wildlife and concentrate on photography. After coming back, Harry asked if I wanted to hear about his day. Of course! 

He & Nina were out on the river’s edge when a couple gave him a heads up that there was a bear walking down the river. Which side became the question and there he was about 100 yards out on the far side of the river. Every bus ride, ranger program and poster around the campground preaches bear awareness. Make noise, avoidance, back away if possible, stay 300 yards away, don’t run, stand your ground, bear spray and if contact is unavoidable, curl up into a ball with your backpack on and hands over your neck. Best case scenario, he will only play with you for a while. Yikes!

Harry did the right thing backing away. The other couple continued walking while two others sat in their chairs and watched. Unless cubs are involved, 99% of the time grizzlies don’t want anything to do with humans. They are thinkers and it becomes a mind game of action/reaction. The resounding message, stay calm. The Denali bears living in the tundra eat mostly berries, vegetation and ground squirrels whereas the coastal brown bears are fish eaters making them bigger, stronger and more dangerous. Honestly, I think I would be like the Tennessee Fainting Goats - legs locked, keel over and faint!

We have had a wonderful stay at Denali NP. Five nights at Riley Creek CG and 4 out at Teklanika CG after having already spent 9 nights 60 miles away on the south side at Denali SP. I have been able to go west into the park 3 times and seen many grizzlies, cubs, caribou, arctic gray wolves with one very special black one, arctic ground squirrels, hoary marmot, willow and rock ptarmigans, long-tail jaegers, golden eagles, northern wheatears, american pipits, short-eared and northern hawk owls and so much more. It’s pretty amazing to see a seabird like the long-tailed jaeger ashore nesting with young on the tundra.

A bus ride west is an all day affair and you get to know the folks traveling with you, always one of the greatest pleasures of traveling. The same is true in the campground. We met a wonderful couple, Laura & Doug from Toronto, traveling in a big brother to our RoadTrek, an Adventurous Sprinter model. They chose a campsite across from us and Harry welcomed them in. Laura is a lover of birds and spotted a northern hawk owl on her arrival while Doug’s passion is photography and a Nikon guy. Lots in common. If the wheels were not already set in motion to leave today, I would have loved to have spent another day with them.

We had already decided to cut our stay short by several days because the days were getting long for Harry while I was out hiking and riding the bus. On our ride back out, Harry said he felt like he was dragging a kid out of Disney. Good analogy but I left feeling pretty satisfied when we came across 4 northern hawk owls and a short-ear owl chasing a golden eagle while crossing paths with a northern harrier. If you open your eyes and look around, there is always something special to see no matter where you are.

S & E will probably stay in Denali for their remaining 5 days and then rendezvous with us south of Anchorage in the Kenai Peninsula. Fishing territory!