Yesturday I went to our remote bear camp that is across the cook inlet from the kenai peninsula. I went with some clients and because of weather and fog our flight didnt go out for 3 hours. We were finally in the air a little after 3pm. The flight in the bush plane was interesting especially when we were over the ocean and we hit fog that was from the ocean up. I was in the front and I couldnt see past the plane or anywhere for that matter. The pilot relied on his instruments and his gps, but no radar on these little planes..kinda freaky going through the fog! Well we crossed the huge bay and hugged the coastline until we landed at the camp about an hour after taking off. While flying along the coastline the scenery was great and I could see grizzlies along the coast.
After the clients were orientated we walked behind camp to the meadow to view the bears. We climbed a platform and there were big brown bears everywhere feeding on the grasses. There were 31 bears that included 2 sows with triplets, sows with yearlings, adolescent bears, boars of all sizes, and even a grizz that was as white as a polar bear. The bears ranged from 15 yards to 400 yds away also. The largest boars probably weighed over a thousand pounds. They would chase each other through the stream and the mothers would feed near us or away from the boars, because boars will try to kill the cubs. After dinner we went out again and viewed the bears from a state park trail about 500 yds from camp. Here we had a Mother and here very small triplets feed about 20 yds away, and there were many more at about a 100 or more yards. The bears acted like we were never there and just went about their business. The cubs would make begging noises when they were hungry and mom wouldnt let them nurse. The yearlings were playing around and one of them got hurt and limbed for the rest of the time. I will have better pics later when I get some from a guest. They had multi-thousand $ cameras that were able to zoom in and take great pics of the bears.
After we got back and the clients went about their business hanging out with each other behind the electric fences, I went to the kitchen cabin and hung out with my fellow staffers were I heard some pretty good stories and encounters they have had with the bears in the past. Through the live of this camp(15 years or so) no one has been attacked. There has been encounters where they have had to yell at the bears, but only once has a warning shot had to be fired by the guide I was with.
After viewing the bears many times last night and today we were to fly back to kenai and then back to the lodge. Weather was very bad with fog and winds. We almost got stuck out at bear camp for an extra day. I wouldnt have minded for I would have had another day off, but new clients were scheduled and it would have created a mess later for them. Well the planes finally came and picked us up and we flew even more blind on the way back. I was glad to be back on the ground, other than I had to work tonight. I worked my ass off as we had the most clients we have had this year and because the head chef hadnt prepped barely anything for dinner...go figure. Well I wont go there, but i was very annoyed!
