Katmai National Park

On Monday, June 29, I flew to Anchorage to lead my first Sierra Club trip. After two days of finalizing trip preparation, the trip officially began in King Salmon, AK on July 2. Our group consisted of two leaders and seven participants from all over the US as well as Italy. As we flew from Anchorage to King Salmon (no TSA security for this flight), we could see amazing mountains and lakes out the window, including Mt. Redoubt, which was putting out a nice trail of steam. Thankfully, no eruptions interfered with our flight.

Once we landed in King Salmon, we were shuttled from the tiny airport to the Naknek River floatplane dock, the next leg of our adventure. We had to weigh ourselves and our gear, then based on that information, the planes were loaded and we headed off to Katmai National Park. The flights took about 20 minutes. My plane held 5 passengers, some of the planes looked to hold 7-9. More beautiful scenery as we flew first over tundra, then over lakes and rivers before landing on Naknek Lake at Brooks Camp.

We unloaded the plane then quickly walked across the beach to the visitor center. The group that came after us had a more eventful landing -- they had to wait for a bear to finish walking by the landing area before they could exit the plane.
We spent our first night at Brooks Camp in the camping area which is protected by an electric fence. This place is truly amazing. Bears are everywhere, and it takes a bit of time to get used to the fact that you are sharing everything -- beach, trails, fishing holes, even walks to the bathroom, with these giant animals that could kill you in an instant if they wanted to. But really, as far as I could tell, the bears could care less about us. They were much more interested in the salmon that had just started to run when we arrived.

Brooks Camp is managed incredibly well. The campground is surrounded by an electric fence, and there are two viewing platforms where people can congregate and watch the bears. These platforms are located at the mouth of the Brooks River and at Brooks Falls, which is a one mile walk up a road and trail from the first platform. The rest of the area is unfenced, so you need to be on the lookout for bears. Rangers are located at certain points and will steer you clear if bears are in the area. They also keep track of bears in the area of the bridge crossing the mouth of the river. If bears are within 100 yards of the bridge, you can't cross. This results in interesting "bear jams". We got caught in one of these for two hours. Of course, we didn't really mind watching bears for two more hours in the sun. Much better than sitting in traffic.

As I said, bears were everywhere. We saw a few on the trails, and we had one situation on the road between the viewing platforms where I thought I was going to get eaten by a bear, but we really weren't in any danger. A bear came running out of the woods right at us, maybe 20 yards behind us, and after I almost took off running (which is the absolute wrong thing to do), we realized that it was being chased by another bear and it was not charging us. Thankfully, all of us remained somewhat calm, and we had some fast heartbeats, trembling legs, and a good story.

On day 2, we headed out to the Valley of 10,000 Smokes for six nights and seven days. This valley is full of ash and pumice from a huge volcanic eruption in 1912. In places, the ash is 700 feet deep. A few rivers have cut through the ash over the years, and the gorges they have cut are amazing. It also means that crossings are few and far between. There are no bridges, you have to ford everything when you find a chance. The valley is about 12 miles long, and ringed by volcanoes and glaciers. It is cloud free only 20% of the time according to the literature. For us, however, the weather was pretty much all sun, with the exception of 2 foggy mornings. We had no rain, and the temperatures were HOT! I think it was probably around 80 during the days, and there is no shade. Basically, it is like a desert. I broke out my down jacket only once. We also got incredibly lucky at the absence of wind. The valley is notorious for wicked winds that funnel through Katmai Pass and kick up ash that gets into everything. We were advised to bring goggles and dust masks to protect ourselves. We saw this on the first day, but we managed to avoid it. Still not sure how we got so lucky.

After an amazing 7 days in the Valley, we headed back to Brooks Camp for two more nights in the campground a full day of bear viewing. We also contemplated taking a hike up Dumpling Mountain, but the bears won out. I think I speak for most if not all of the group when I say that we spent hours watching the bears, and could easily have spent hours more. It was truly one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. The pictures are great, but they really only give you part of the story. It is an unbelievable thing to watch the bears sit there and wait for fish. Some stand at the top of the falls and wait for the fish to jump right into them. Others wait at the bottom in the backwash and when they feel a fish bump them, they grab them. Still others swim around with their heads underwater and "snorkel". More run and jump on the fish. Some steal the fish from the bear that caught it, and some have learned to steal fish off a fisherman's line (see photo at the end of this entry). They stay in the same spots for hours, and the next day, they are in their spots again. Really, truly amazing.

The trip ended on July 11, and as I flew back through King Salmon on the way to Anchorage, I ran into a guy from Seattle who I climbed Mt. Baker with. Small world. On the way from King Salmon to Anchorage, we saw Redoubt again, as well as the incredible glacial mass of Mt. Iliamna. Made it back to Seattle on July 12, where I unpacked and immediately started repacking for Africa. I leave for Africa on July 28.