Walking with the Grizzlies...

Since moving to Alaska, I have had severely mixed feelings about seeing bears here.  I wanted to see them in their natural habitat, but I was deathly afraid of seeing them in their natural habitat.  Shortly after we moved here, John went out one morning and there were 2 grizzly cubs and mama bear snacking on flowers and berries in the yard beside our apartment – but I was already at work.  Several months later, a 2 year old black bear cub wandered around on our deck; he actually spent several months in and around our neighborhood, and I did get a quick snapshot of him on our deck, through our kitchen window.  But that wasn’t a grizzly…

And then we moved to Kodiak, the home of the famed Kodiak Grizzly Bear.  Reports of brown bear sightings were pretty common; in fact, an aggressive grizzly was shot and killed just a few houses down from our rental right before we moved in.  Several friends spotted them around town once in a while; one wandered around the clinic parking lot just before I arrived at work one morning.  Just a couple weeks before Jade & Trip moved off island, she and I were working in her basement when neighbors posted and texted about a bear in the neighborhood.  We went running outside, but he was long gone; he had walked just about 50 feet away from us, but I never laid eyes on him.  I didn’t see any of these bears.

So then it was up to me… LOL.  I booked a bear viewing tour with a local family-owned company; I was quite nervous as this particular flight would be in a float plane.  Not only were we going to see Grizzly Bears, but we were going up in a plane that takes off and lands IN WATER – a LITTLE plane…. In water…. I was so nervous about the event that I could hardly sleep Sunday night.  I finally fell asleep around midnight and awoke 2-3 times after falling asleep.  We awoke and readied ourselves; we drank our coffee and waited for them to pick us up at our house.  Amanda was a great driver; she greeted us and seemed so at ease – I wondered if she had been on this trip.  As she chatted with us, she revealed that she had indeed taken the tour out when she first started working for the company.  Well, she came back and was doing just fine; I wondered about our day.

After picking up other customers at a local hotel, we headed for Trident Basin, where the plane docks and their little office building is located.  They fitted us with waders, and again, my mind jumped ahead into our day.  Why do we need waders? Just how deep will we wade?  Will the bottom be slick and high risk for a fall?  I’m not only worried about me, but John does NOT need to fall just days prior to leaving the island for a 5,000+ mile journey.  And then….. the fear haunts me again: just how close will we be to these bears? Friends have told me that they walked around on the beach WITH the bears; how close will they get to us? Bear mauling stories hit the news and are quite melodramatic when they occur.  I am NOT interested in making the news this way.  My heart is pounding and my brain is on massive alert. 

the float plane awaits

just as we take off, looking over the island

John acts as co-pilot.... I was SO jealous!

I'm in the back, all set up and ready to fly...

After being fitted for the waders, we make our way down the dock where the float plane sits in the OCEAN.  Nice and neat.  Floats seem to be in fine working order, as the plane sits nice and steady next to the pier.  There are 6 seats and 5 passengers, so John gets chosen to sit up front with Roland, the pilot; the other ladies are seated in the middle, and I am left to sit beside Jo, the guide, in the rear of the plane.  Oh my, now John and I are separated; if the plane breaks up, he’s in front and I’m in back. Oh dear Lord, please don’t let anything like that happen.  Everyone gets seated, buckled, and then we are instructed in the use of our headsets.  The pilot cranks her up and we start moving out into open water.  My insides are in KNOTS as we leave the water and take to the air.  Ah, that take-off was amazingly calm and easy.  Am I feeling better? I’m not sure at this point.  The pilot and guide offer tons of little tidbits of info about bears, Kodiak, the ocean animals, the land animals here in Kodiak, and we really enjoyed the chatter.  One of our flight-mates is from Italy and only speaks Italian; she has an interpreter with her and so, much of our conversation is paused to allow for translation.  The pilot and guide spot eagle, deer and goats on Kodiak hills and once over water, we saw some sea otters and fin whales.  We flew very close to the ground; it sometimes seemed as if we could reach out the window and touch the mountains.  My heart is racing; I don’t know whether to be nervous and afraid or just plain excited.  We learned that most of the animals living on Kodiak Island aren’t native at all, but were brought over from the mainland at various times throughout history. 

Experts believe the Kodiak bears actually came over during a period of time when some of the nearby ocean waters were frozen solid and once thawed, they couldn’t get off the island.  From this handful of grizzlies, came today’s entire Kodiak bear population.

As the guide continues to regale us with all sorts of historical stories, my mind is racing ahead to landing; just how deep is the water there? How far off the beach will we be?  Will there be bears hanging around waiting on us?  My heart pounds with excitement and fear, yet the pilot and guide seem so comfortable – and this conflict in my emotions baffles me.

Finally, we approach our landing site on Katmai at Hallo Bay.  I can no longer tell if it’s my heartbeat or the vibrations of the plane’s engines causing my insides to churn.  And John is all the way up in front of the plane… so I cannot reach his hand for reassurance.  We fly over the meadows just off the beach; we spot several brown bears, glistening in the sunlight.   Oh my goodness, there are loads of bears.  Just where in the heck are we gonna land? And will these bears like or not like us invading their territory?  The pilot circles around the meadows and beach and approaches out landing zone – out in Hallo Bay.  The plane descends rather quickly and skims across the water as easily as a knife slices through butter.  It really is a very smooth landing; my heart is still racing because NOW, we have to get out of the plane.  There is no dock, no pier, nowhere to hold the plane still.  First the pilot and guide exit the plane.  I’m frantically looking down into the water, searching for rocks, land, mud, ANYTHING solid on which to plan my feet.  But to no avail; there is nothing visible through the muddy water.  I’m quite unnerved that we have to blindly leave the boat with no way to know what’s underneath the murky ocean water.  I look around and see that we are about 100 yards or so from the actual beach; how does Jo know it’s safe to and disembark here? What’s gonna happen if I slip and fall getting out of the plane? My brain is telling me that these people know what they are doing, but my heart is still racing and afraid they might be wrong.

approaching Hallo Bay

We've landed in the bay

we are now walking to the beach from the bay

view of the Hallo Glacier on Katmai

the first mama bear and cubs we see on the beach

we are in the ocean water; Roland is our pilot and unbeknownst to us, he's preparing to take off...

Because I’m in the back seat, I’m the last person off and boy, am I glad! Everyone else is walking around in the knee-high water just fine and no one’s fallen yet.  Hope I’m not the one!  As I gingerly climb down from the seat, my foot lands on a spiked ladder, and then onto the pontoon floats.  I then kneel and step into the murky ocean water, feet landing on a rocky bottom.  Water comes up to my knees and I can tell through the waders that the water is ice cold.  John grabs my hand and we begin walking toward the beach.  Roland bids us farewell and says he will be back after while; Jo explains that he has groceries to deliver to homes nearby.  The plane cranks up and takes off; my heart leaps as I realize he is gone – really gone.  Fears once again jump – what if he crashes? What if we need him for a medical emergency? Our only ride out of here just left.

Jo points toward the beach and begins to show us three sets of sows with cubs leaving the woods/meadows and coming out onto the beach with us.  Oh my.  Oh my.   Um, this is not good.  From our left, there appears to be a huge mama bear with 3 large cubs; from our right is a mama bear with 2 cubs, and directly in front of us is another mama with 2 cubs.  We begin walking directly toward the bears on our right.  They start moving across in front of us and so we start zig-zagging toward them.  Then, she turns and heads further right, going back from where they came.  We change course and head directly toward the mid-point of the 2 remaining families.  We approach cautiously, and Jo keeps reminding us to stay close and keep a tight grouping to appear as 1 large creature to the bears.  We try; but we have a variety of health abilities and not all of us keep up easily.  However, I feel like I’m stuck like glue to Jo’s back.  Gradually, we make our way up onto the sandy beach and out of the ocean water.  I’m really glad to be out of the water; it’s cold and I’m worried about someone slipping. 

As we approach the beach, we walk a few steps and stop; we photograph the bears and watch them in awe.  They are only yards away and seem to be going about their business normally.  They’ve giving us no attention whatsoever.  There are other wheeled planes stationed on the beach where other tourists have landed and are making their way back into the meadows and woods.  The mama and 3 cubs entertain us for about an hour or so; 2 of them tussle and play wrestle.  The remaining lone cub wanders around, exploring, sniffing the beach for clams, running and playing; every once in a while, mama bear makes a huffing sound and the cub comes back closer to mom.  At one point, one of the cubs found an empty water bottle on the beach; mama bear did not approve of him playing with that bottle!  She made a popping sound with her jaw and when the cub did not immediately respond to her instructions, she charged at him.  The cub immediately ran away from mama bear, and we laughed!

It was then that I realized I wasn’t afraid anymore; laughter had eased all our tensions and fears.  We remained vigilant and alert throughout the rest of our adventure, but we were no longer scared.  After watching this family of 4 bears for a while, we made our way up over the berm where driftwood lay scattered all around; grasses and flower grew up and over many of the logs and even trash on the upper part of the beach.  We spotted a large sow without a cub as she was being stalked by a massive male grizzly.  As Jo explained the typical stalking behavior of the bears, it was striking how they did exactly what she said they would do, walked around just like she said.  We then advanced on around the meadows where we found a large group of brown bears.  Some were just lying on the ground in small groups or even singly; one sow with her 2 cubs was walking near us – about 50 yards away. And suddenly, she stopped walking, laid down and the cubs began to nurse – right there in front of us.  It was such a special and amazing moment.  We sat down on a log and whispered among ourselves and took loads of photos.  I wondered just how many people ever get to see God’s creation like this?

cousin bears playing

mama bear in front and 2.5 year old cub following

one of their pawprints

one of the bear prints and my foot.... nearly the same size; I think this is one of the cubs' prints

digging for clams

the bears were not so sure about this funny machine on the beach....

bears are behind us... we had so much fun!

How many people get to see grizzlies nursing their young in their own habitat?

After hanging around for a while, we made our way back to the beach, where Roland and the plane were waiting.  Somehow, sometime, he had flown back in from his delivery.  He was just hanging out holding the plane in place, waiting for us.  We hiked back out into the cold ocean water and climbed aboard without incident.  This time, John and I were in the middle seats together; they handed us lunch plates and we began to chow down.  Flying back across Shelikof Strait, we saw more otters and whales; both of the whales were blowing, so Roland circled around for us to get a good look.  It was totally amazing!

This trip was a once-in-a-lifetime trip – totally amazing.  I will always remember this day and many of the quirky details of this day.  We hope you’ve enjoyed your virtual bear tour!