Alaska part 5

And Finally, the last installment of my alaska series. if you missed any, the first parts are available here, part 1, part 2, part 3 & part 4. go read them now if you havent!

Day 10 – Kenai

When i last left you, we had just arrived at our lodge late the following evening. We woke up early, bright and chipper, and met for breakfeast. none of us were entirely sure what we were signed up for, as ive been on some river rafting tours, where, i spent the full trip pretty wet. anyways, our fears were allayed when we got to the site, about 10 min from our lodge, and they said the water was too cold, and it would be a peaceful hour and a half ride down the river. This of course meant i could bring the long lens, as we were BOUND to see some wildlife.. i was hoping. So we got life vested up, and entered our means of conveyance for the next hour and a half. our guide, cliff, has lived in alaska most his life, does these river tours and fishing tours in the summer, and went crab fishing in the bearing straight during the winter. his longest shift he told us was 52 hours. … … yah. he can keep doing that. im going to stay away from crab fishing.

Anywho, as we were comfortably rafting down the river peppering our poor tour guide with questions and getting over the shock of his winter vocation, there was already some fun wildlife around. some fishermen, some merganser ducks, and more gulls. apparently our timing was good weather wise, but not so good fish running wise. apparently we were right in between two of the big salmon runs, and well, the next one had just entered the mouth of the river, but was still 3 days away from us. so we did not see a lot of fish. But, the ducks were cool, and i got some good gull pictures. Then cliff yelled eagle, and i pulled the lens up, and was able to just get a shot, slightly out of focus, of a bald eagle swooping past our small boat. i was just a half second to late to get it to autofocus completely. but its still a pretty respectable shot. then, luckily, i finally hit eagle pay dirt. i was contemplating how there had been a serious lack of eagles on our trip. now we were finally seeing some. well, this guy was just hanging out on top of a tree, regarding us with contempt as we floated by. i got some seriously good shots of him as we went by. i was sort of wishing i had an even longer lens.

as i was dreaming of a 400mm lens for some serious eagle action, around the corner we came past our first bear of the trip! this cute little black bear was looking for food in the river banks as we floated by. unbeknownst to some campers who were just upstream of his path. im sure they were fine. anyways, the excitement of finally seeing a bear was pretty high. im obviously a bear veteran, but the girls enjoyed it. as we continued, more fisherman, another eagle, and more ducks. Overall, it was so pleasant and relaxing. i think orit and i could of just started over again, and done that all day.

Then, upon the recommendation of the nice older lady at the lodge, we decided to hike out to the Russian river falls. apparently an easy trail, of about 2.5 miles with a nice viewing platform. well, its about now that the clouds were looking a little darker, and in hindsight, the best part of the trip happend to us. the parking lot for the trailhead was full, so the ranger sent us to a different parking lot. well, it wasn’t very clear, and the map was of disputable use, and so i fell to asking some what appeared to be locals. they said, heck yah, hit the river, follow it upstream! well, that sounds simple enough! so off we went, and it was good for 15 minutes on a nice boardwalk. but then, it turned to walking up the side of a river bank, over stones, and roots, and whatnot. well, we did this for about a good 50 minutes, at which point im thinking we should be there, we finally ran into some more fishermen. apparently, yes, the fresh bear scat on the trail is from the bears that usually hang out at the falls, and we have only gone about 1 mile so far, and we for sure missed the turn off to the much easier trail up above the river.

So, though we did have a lot of fun, and it actually felt like hiking, we decided to turn it around, and try again. so, back we went, found the car, found the CORRECT trail head, parked there, and started fresh. this trail was a lot easier, and had i been thinking right, i would of probably realized a lot sooner that the other trail did not make a lot of sense. anywho, we met LOTS of people returning from the falls on this trail, and about 1 in 6 said they actually saw bears fishing. the ones that did probably saw them an hour ago, so we were a little disappointed, but still optimistic. but i really just wanted to get a good picture of a salmon jumping, as a few stragglers were apparently still trying. so off we raced, and it took us about an hour. we got there and some guys with a good camera also were getting some pictures of fish jumping, but ended up not staying long after we got there.

so we are all watching the falls, and the fish are not really cooperating, and i see a brown blur thru the forest above. my heart jumped, and i try yelling out, and instead am gurgling words and pointing to the bushes. finally i manage to yell grizzly, and low and behold, a huge mom grizzly bear with a baby in tow waddles out of the forest at the bottom of the falls. she instantly jumps into the water, and starts to swim to where the fish are. all of us are just amazed, and im racing around trying to find the best shot. after a few minutes of diving around, out come the grizzly with a huge salmon in her mouth. she heads back to shore to bring it to her cub, who starts devouring it. a moment later, she runs back into the forest, and we thought it was all over, but no, out she comes with a slacker cub who was hanging out above. so now moms hovering around the cubs while they try to eat this monster fish. i think in total we spent about 20 glorious minutes watching this bear and her cubs walk around, fish, and eat. All of us were just amazed, and considered it pretty much the perfect ending to a trip in alaska. eventually the bear was unable to catch a second fish, and walked downriver, probably to where we would of eventually ended up if we had continued on our earlier course up the river. That would of been a fun encounter!

just as we finished our hour hike back to the car, the skys opened up, and it started to pour. we were pretty stunned, as we really thought alaska was always warm and sunny, as that is all the weather we had for the last 10 days. we counted our blessings, told the weather, we really dont care now, and rolled into a nice little local eatery and had some warm food and tea. We called it a day, and an end to a almost perfect adventure.

Who i ready for rafting!

a river guided fishing tour

gull

swoop past us, he did

i wish this was in focus

very reagle, those eagles

he knows we are not food, right?

some of those ducks i spoke of

A black bear!

a sweet tree

some fun after rafting

i really liked this bark

this is the path we ended up hiking on for 2 hours or so

amos of the bushes

Are you ready for this? GRIZZLY Bear with cubs!! notice the cub up top

fishin…

again, wish this was in focus

playing tug of war

no, we are not food up here on this platform

im serious, not edible

looks like a jaccuzi

cute little cubs

i swear she knew we were there, though i really dont think she did

and finally, some waterfall pictures are a must

and thats if for pictures!

Day 11 – Anchorage

On the last morning in alaska, we woke up, had breakfast, and made our way by car back to anchorage. we essentially drove right back to the airport, and flew out that day around 1 or so i think. so we did not have much of an adventure, but i think after 10 days, that was enough. the flight home was good enough, and we arrived to our place around 6 or so, due to the time difference and all.

I hope you have enjoyed journeying along with us on this crazy alaskan adventure that we have just partook. these are but a small subset of the 750 pictures i picked as my best, but i think they convey the storey pretty well. The total trip was a blast, and i had such a great time. Im not sure a cruise is really for me, but it certainly was a nice way to see much of the lower part of alaska, and if i were to ever go back, i would know what i wanted to see or do. There is still so much of alaska we really did not see, as much of it is not really accessible by car. if i ever do get a chance to go back, i think thats my preferred way of seeing things, by floatplane. but for now, im content with all that we saw. I think its inspired me to see more of our beautiful province. BC really has a lot to offer, and im going to try to take advantage of where we live a little more now than i have in the past.

I hope you have enjoyed my recap of our epic Alaskan Adventure. Its certainly been a lot of fun writing it up and sharing the pictures with people! Thats all, till the next adventure…..