Capturing the Moment

  A swimming Katmai bear, heading our way! It was another spectacular visit to Katmai National Park in Alaska. Known for its bears, it did not disappoint. We had many close bear encounters, and we even got to see a number of swimming bears. One swam all the way across Kukak Bay. I couldn't blame him, as it was one of the hottest days of the summer for this part of Alaska. We had another playful bear that rolled over in the shallows, giving us a good view. We explored Kukak Bay in the morning. This is one of the more famous bays on the outer coast of Katmai National Park. People will fly in on float planes to come watch bears here. Early in the morning, Christian and I paddled our kayaks out for a recon of the shallow bay at the back of the bay. It was a beautiful morning with calm water, but no bears. Then, after breakfast, I took out a shorewalking group. The tide was going out, so the landing was tough. No one topped their boots, and everyone walked slowly so they didn't slip...

We watched this brown bear catch five salmon in about ten minutes. He is going to get big fast with this kind of diet. Today I took a few hardy guests to one of my favorite hikes in Southeast Alaska. In the middle of the Baranof Island Wilderness is a tiny cove, just big enough to fit our ship for anchor. It is called Ell Cove, and this is the jumping off point for the hike. Just our from the cove is an unusual sight, a beautiful white sandy beach. This is a rarity in the inside passage. As we pulled up to the beach for our dropoff, our skiff driver called out, "bear in the river!." We all looked, and sure enough, right next to the beach there was a large brown bear in the salmon stream. Then we saw another. 2 bears in the river! I turned to the guests and said, "Bears in the river, right over there, looks like a great place to land. Let's go!" Some of the guests thought I was joking. But soon enough we had all landed on the beach. We walked up to a large rocky ...

  Takatz Bay is one of the most beautiful places to kayak. It is located on the east coast of Baranof Island in Southeast Alaska. It is a long fjord, carved out by a glacier many years ago. Snowy mountain peaks are still visible deep up the valley, and the water is still tinged sky blue with glacial meltoff. Now a beautiful stream thunders out of the rainforest into the back of the bay, and salmon come back year after year to swim their way up it. This means that on occasion, a brown bear comes down to the river to do some fishing. If you get lucky, and you time the tides right (it has to be a high tide to get up the river to the falls), then you might just get to kayak with a wild Alaskan brown bear. Today was that day. And this bear was hungry. I watched the bear walking purposefully along the high tide coastline, peaking in and out of the forest as it cruised towards the river. I followed silently in my kayak, trying to keep my eye on it through the foliage. After busting out in...