Capturing the Moment

  Parts of the estuary maintained enough wetness to throw off some beautiful reflections on our hike back. At one of the least visited National Monuments in the USA, our group braved boot sucking mud and massive brown bears to hike deep into the valley at Aniakchak Bay, Alaska. This is a truly wild place. There are no building, no roads, no facilities.... just pure Alaskan wilderness. Brown bears roam, unimpeded by anything man made. And if people do arrive, we are just temporary visitors.

  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 ...

  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...

  A huge brown bear ambles past our group through the meadow. This bear was chowing down on grass as he slowly worked through the meadow. It is hard to explain the feeling of being on the ground, here in Alaska, and sharing that space with brown bears. All of us guides undergo intense bear trainings every season, as well as advanced wilderness medical classes every two years, so we can successfully and safely take guests out on adventures in remote Alaska. This coastal part of Katmai is about as remote as it gets. There isn't even another ship in sight as we set off on our small boats for the adventure of lifetime. I had twelve guests with me on our skiff, and they had heeded my advice that there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing choices. They were waterproof from head to toe, which was good since the clouds opened up on us during the skiff ride to land. The rain let up quite a bit once we got to land, but the high grasses kept us wet. I led the group slowly, not w...

  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...