Capturing the Moment

  We shared an intimate encounter with this brown bear from our kayaks this morning. Another Alaska memory to store away forever. We saw four brown bears this morning while we kayaked around Geographic Harbor in Katmai National Park. I felt like I really put our guests in the perfect positions for all the bear viewing. It is always a great feeling as a guide, when you make good calls on what the wildlife is going to do before it happens. It takes a certain amount of luck, and a lot of experience sure helps too. This morning was a little of both. We started off at the estuary in the back, since we could see a big brown bear there from our boat. I got my kayakers together, gave them a quick talk about kayaking around bears, and listening to my advice out there. Then we paddled in close to watch a bear move around a little deeper in the meadow. As we were watching, people from an anchored private charter boat pulled up in their dinghy, and proceeded to get off on shore and walk right ...

One little misstep could mean disaster, when hiking in Alaska. I may have been playing it up a little for the camera here.   Walking on the plateau, with beautiful lakes and ponds between the ridges. There is some interesting geology going on here. What scenery! The landscape here at Wide Bay is out of this world. I couldn't believe our luck as the weather held out for another wonderful day of hiking on our 10 day Alaska expedition cruise. Today we are at an outer bay in the Ugashik district of the Alaskan Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge. What a mouthful. I had a group of hikers who wanted something in between a hard charger level and a beach walk easy level. The moderate hike was born. I took them to a very nice beach landing, where we slid out of the small boat into the shallow water. Not a problem since we all had the 'Alaskan tennis shoe' on, aka. big rubber boots. We saw a couple of red foxes playing farther down the beach. I had been here before, but I wanted to tr...

  The reflective surface of Aniakchak lagoon. I love bringing people here for the photographic opportunities. Sometimes, the best travel stories are from the times that don't go according to plan. I had one of those adventures today, at Aniakchak Bay. This spot is part of one of the most remote, and least visited, National Monuments and preserves in the country. The bay consist of a long stretch of beach, with big dunes, a river on one side, and a huge estuary on the other. I had been here once before, and had taken guests hiking deep into the estuary, which I wanted to do again. The entrance and dropoff were a breeze, and the hike in was as easy and picturesque as I remembered. It was the hike out that proved difficult. As we hiked in, we had marsh grass and dry bank to walk on. Or we could walk out on the wet mud of the estuary. This reflective mud is one of the most picturesque things about this bay. I took the whole group out in it for a picture at one point because it was so b...