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Tuesday, 23 August 2011 Kenai, Alaska - Silver Salmon Lodge
Woke up this morning and got ourselves all set up for getting to Soldotna Airport for the trip to Silver Salmon Creek Lodge. This was the next big must do after Denali and so we were excited and hoped it was going to be a great time. We were out of the hotel and on our way before 08:00. The stay at the Hotel had been a very recouperative and Iwas hoping that it boded well for the next few days.
The weather on the way to the airport was wet and rainy, so I was a little disappointed but hopeful that perhaps across the bay the weather would be different. We arrived at Soldotna Airport, it consisted of lots of small planes mainly single engine and a few hangers and offices. There was no terminal and so you drove into the carpark of Natron Air then walked into the office and met the owners before sitting down and waiting for the other passengers.
We took off and headed to Silver Salmon. We flew into some clear weather, Shoeleh was really chuffed as she got to be co-pilot for the trip. The flight highlighted the denseness of the vegetation and also once you got near the coast the tidal flats that led into the bay. The bay was interesting in the wash from the rivers was distinguishable from the ocean waters. On the flight we got to see all three active volcano's through the clouds and even saw a plume from Mount Iliamna.
We landed on the beach! These planes only need about 150m to land. We were met on the beach by someone from the lodge and driven back on a AWD bike with a trailer set up for passengers. The trip back took us across a slew and up a track to the lodge. The lodge has a chainsaw carved bearout the front probably about 2.5m tall. We were shown to our room and then it was back to the mud room to get ready for the day. Right now we had no idea of what to expect.
We met up with Brian who would be our guide for the next four days. Our hiking boots were replaced with some knee high gum boots from a selection. Once set we headed out. Brian asked us what we wanted to do and we agreed to go looking for bears. So back into the trailer and off we went. The trailers had seats in them that eased the bounce of the carts and made the journey comfortable. We headed north to the Johnson River. The journey up too us back through the water and up the beach, along the way we got to see a falcon and also some eagles in the tree.
We arrived at the river to find that there were others there already with a bear in view. So we stopped and followed Brian in for a closer look. The bear was relatively comfortable with all these people around and I was amazed that we were probably only 25m from this bear. The bear, a sow, proceeded to keep doing its own thing. It went into the water to look for fish and came out and gave one of those classic bear shakes. It appeared to have a cache of food up on the hill, that it returned too, before proceeding out onto the mud flats. It left these awesome bear footprints in the mud, and after wandering around for a bit it headed back up onto the hill. While looking at the footprints of the bear we also saw footprints of Moose, and a wolf that had been to the beach in the last few days.
Given the bear had decided to now lay on its cache, we decided to head out toward the eagles. Back into the trailer and away we went, stopping we were out and wandering through the undergrowth toward the tree with the eagles. We were able to observe and take some photos before they decided to take flight. It was pretty awesome sight. So we headed back to the bike and proceeded to look for some more bears, which we did find, although they were a little distant. With this introduction we returned for our first lunch at the lodge, we stopped off to view some more bird life and some harbour seals.
Now we had been hear only a few hours so imagine our surprise when on the way back we bumped into a mum with two cubs. So here we have two two year old cubs playing only 10m from us providing just a great viewing opportunity. Brian said that these cubs and there mum are around a lot so they are not as jumpy as some of the other bears and that they are still suckling from their mum. These 'little' cubs probably weighed in at about 60kgs and were not shy around us. What was amazing is that the mum just up and walked away while they played and dozed in front of us, then they got up saw mum off ahead of them and off they ran.
At the lodge we learned that there were sixteen or more other guests here. We were allocated seats and waited for lunch, the lodge had cooks and served an excellent lunch, with way more food than I expected. We were seated with a couple from Texas who were here for three days. Lunch was interrupted by the two cubs and their mum paying a visit to the lodge to see if they could get the fish that had been caught in the morning. Here again what an amazing first few hours.
With lunch finished we headed out again to see what we could find. We again decided to head for Johnson River. When we arrived the bear we had seen in the morning was sleeping on the beach in a small divot it had gouged out into the beach. We spent a lot of time watching the antics of the bear as it rested. We decided to head off to see what else we could find. So we headed further up the river driving around the mudflats. Once we parked the truck we started up through the undergrowth. This involved trekking across various pieces of wetland, where we got to see the large lake that went almost from river to the Salmon Creek to the south. We spotted a bear so believe it or not we started to follow it! This bear was wandering up one of the creek arms in search of salmon. Now for a big animal that seems to be just meandering slowly they cover a lot of ground, soon it was a long way from us. We spotted another bear on the other side of another arm of the creek, so we forded the creek and went in search. We found the bear rest/asleep on the far shore so we progressed slowly to get a photo.
Then there was a splash in the creek and the bear leapt up and raced to the spot, I am not kidding this took the bear almost no time at all. These bears can run at up to 60kph for short distances and this is from a 'sleeping' start. We snapped a whole lot of shots of the bear searching for the fish and then it got out of the creek right near us, about 10m away. So now we were on an island with a hungry bear, thankfully more interested in fish than us. Now I felt so comfortable, not, I turned around to look at our escape route and on the bank we had crossed from to get to this island the other bear was heading back along the top of it. Now things looked interesting, Brian assured us that there was nothing to worry about as long as we stayed together and didn't make any sharp moves, we could stay and take photos. So that is what we did.
We then were joined by the group of photographers from the morning, I felt a lot more comfortable now that there were eight of us to one bear. Then splash again the bear spotted a salmon and jumped in after it, missing the catch it walked up out of the water not more than about 10m away to get to its viewing point. Now the splash did something else. It attracted the bear from the other creek to come over. I thought I am going to see my first bear fight, but no they circled each other and then off the new bear walked right past us, like less than 3m away. This was turning into an awesome day.
At this point another group of photographers joined us and we decided to head back to the lodge to get ready for dinner
Dinner was again shared with Barry and Vikki from Austin, Texas who had been fishing during the day, now they were sharing with us the merits of fishing. Shoeleh was already planning to learn fishing so…
Yep that's right we got ourselves a fishing licence and off we went fishing. We were joined by Robert from one of the other groups and Brian guiding again. Now the day was just getting more and more amazing. So we headed off to the Silver Salmon Creek. I am not keen about fishing, but we are on holidays so what the heck. So we are there, casting our hooks into the water and after about 15 minutes a small squeal and Shoeleh has landed a fish. Here is the most amazing thing we have now seen bears and bear cubs and now Shoeleh has caught herself a fish.
The reason for the small squeal was because in the morning there was a big squeal and then all the other fishing people headed down to join in. We all kept fishing, moving up and down the bank, Shoeleh managed to hook another one that got away. After about two hours of this it was getting dark and we were strung out along the creek. Not sure what prompted her but Shoeleh decided to move down and join the rest of us, as she joined us a male bear, boar, followed her. So we grabbed our single catch, in a bear proof container (steel box) and headed back to the bike. The bear crossed the creek and was on the far bank matching our pace. Brain said that it was heading to the beach to do its fishing, it looked a lot leaner and muscular compared to the sows we had seen during the day.
On the ride back from the creek, we find a porcupine meandering on the track in front of us. Now it did not change its course or run away it just kept walking/waddling along the path till it was ready to enter into the bushes.
Now it was just after 22:00 and we entered into the lodge at the end of the most awesome day. Shoeleh was feeling really good about this fishing business. I was really happy that Brian would be cleaning the fish. Exhausted from the day we showered and went off to bed.
Animals Spotted: Grizzly bears - lots of them, eagles, falcon, loons, harbour seals, horses (from the air), live in the wild porcupine, Silver Salmon!
Day Thirty eight
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