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It's my third season working at the Royal Coachman Lodge in Alaska. And one of my job perks this year was a visit to the legendary Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park. Everyone knows this waterfall from the National Geographic photos of salmon jumping right into the mouth of a grizzly bear. Well, this is the place. The bears are everywhere eating fish and berries to fatten up for the long winter and you can't walk very far before having a close encounter. The rule in this situation: don't run but get out of their way. A grizzly bear is as fast as a race horse for the the first 30 meters so running does you no good anyway. Unless of course you're faster than the guy next to you.
Surprisingly, the bears are accustomed to people wandering around and as long as you keep your distance, you're considered safe. The park rangers explained that there haven't been any injuries to humans for quite some time and the last incident was actually a collision between a running bear going about his business and an unfortunate tourist caught standing in the way of said "business". Imagine the running back AND two line-backers colliding with the skinny tuba player in the band and that's probably how that one came out.
After bear viewing, we went fishing with the bears on the river. This is probably as real as it gets. In fact I had to wonder how it's even legal. The same rules apply, get out of their way, but now we are competing with the bears for their food source. We spent more time bear dodging than actually fishing. The idea is to always know your exit strategy and not get pinched between 2 or more bears, which is quite common. In one incident, one of our clients hooked the rainbow trout of his dreams only to have the guide cut the line so we could get into the woods and hide. Some of the bears have learned to associate the bend of a fishing rod with a tasty salmon on the end. When a nearby bear took interest in the catch and started coming toward us, we had to free the fish and go!
Well now that I am a veteran bear viewer I am no longer concerned about people and bears at Brooks Falls. What does concern me, however, is the caretaker we left behind at the lodge for the winter. The caretaker job is an eight month excercise in survival and solitude. Winter temperatures will hit -40 degrees F ( which is also -40 C where the temp scales cross) and darkness will prevail for about 20 hours a day in late December and January. He is supposed to keep an eye on the camp, shovel snow off the roofs of all the buildings, and basically not die until we return in June. After meeting our new caretaker, however, it wasn't long before we called him Crazy Mike. He seemed slightly bi-polar and with a mild case of Tourette's syndrome. Crazy Mike described himself as "not a people person" and "lucky to not be in jail for murder." Besides that, we had to wonder if he is prepared to do this. I noticed his sleeping bag was rated to +35 degrees F. Umm....shouldn't you buy one that has a minus sign in front of the number??? Or at least a zero??? And physically, he is absolutley out of shape. He was sooo out of breath he almost died the first time he pulled his little plastic firewood sled up the trail to his cabin....and it was EMPTY. Then he cursed the fact that he has to live on a "f--kin mountain" (it's a small hill that an 8 year old would be disappointed to sled ride, maybe 20 vertical feet in skiing terminology). He often screamed into the air "I'm f--kin outta here." Five minutes later he'd be in a great mood again. In addition, he has absolutely no problem solving skills except shouting "f--k this ****" at random things. We would then have to show him how these random things worked. For example, I introduced him to the fancy electronic wizardry of a six plug electrical strip and how to plug-in all three food freezers to the gas generator which he will need to run if the daytime temp is above freezing. If his food spoils in the first couple weeks, he can't get his chainsaw started to cut wood, or has any of a million possible problems that can happen in the Alaska wilderness....he's done. Yep, death or Sara Palin's "I-quit-arod" are just around the corner for Crazy Mike...my guess is Nov 1st after the first brutal snowfall. He has two satellite phones if he remembers how to use them...we showed him how three times!
My adventures continue but with a twist. Stay tuned........
Surprisingly, the bears are accustomed to people wandering around and as long as you keep your distance, you're considered safe. The park rangers explained that there haven't been any injuries to humans for quite some time and the last incident was actually a collision between a running bear going about his business and an unfortunate tourist caught standing in the way of said "business". Imagine the running back AND two line-backers colliding with the skinny tuba player in the band and that's probably how that one came out.
After bear viewing, we went fishing with the bears on the river. This is probably as real as it gets. In fact I had to wonder how it's even legal. The same rules apply, get out of their way, but now we are competing with the bears for their food source. We spent more time bear dodging than actually fishing. The idea is to always know your exit strategy and not get pinched between 2 or more bears, which is quite common. In one incident, one of our clients hooked the rainbow trout of his dreams only to have the guide cut the line so we could get into the woods and hide. Some of the bears have learned to associate the bend of a fishing rod with a tasty salmon on the end. When a nearby bear took interest in the catch and started coming toward us, we had to free the fish and go!
Well now that I am a veteran bear viewer I am no longer concerned about people and bears at Brooks Falls. What does concern me, however, is the caretaker we left behind at the lodge for the winter. The caretaker job is an eight month excercise in survival and solitude. Winter temperatures will hit -40 degrees F ( which is also -40 C where the temp scales cross) and darkness will prevail for about 20 hours a day in late December and January. He is supposed to keep an eye on the camp, shovel snow off the roofs of all the buildings, and basically not die until we return in June. After meeting our new caretaker, however, it wasn't long before we called him Crazy Mike. He seemed slightly bi-polar and with a mild case of Tourette's syndrome. Crazy Mike described himself as "not a people person" and "lucky to not be in jail for murder." Besides that, we had to wonder if he is prepared to do this. I noticed his sleeping bag was rated to +35 degrees F. Umm....shouldn't you buy one that has a minus sign in front of the number??? Or at least a zero??? And physically, he is absolutley out of shape. He was sooo out of breath he almost died the first time he pulled his little plastic firewood sled up the trail to his cabin....and it was EMPTY. Then he cursed the fact that he has to live on a "f--kin mountain" (it's a small hill that an 8 year old would be disappointed to sled ride, maybe 20 vertical feet in skiing terminology). He often screamed into the air "I'm f--kin outta here." Five minutes later he'd be in a great mood again. In addition, he has absolutely no problem solving skills except shouting "f--k this ****" at random things. We would then have to show him how these random things worked. For example, I introduced him to the fancy electronic wizardry of a six plug electrical strip and how to plug-in all three food freezers to the gas generator which he will need to run if the daytime temp is above freezing. If his food spoils in the first couple weeks, he can't get his chainsaw started to cut wood, or has any of a million possible problems that can happen in the Alaska wilderness....he's done. Yep, death or Sara Palin's "I-quit-arod" are just around the corner for Crazy Mike...my guess is Nov 1st after the first brutal snowfall. He has two satellite phones if he remembers how to use them...we showed him how three times!
My adventures continue but with a twist. Stay tuned........
- comments
Brent Durand . Very Cool !
wanderlustlizzy Swweeeet! Don`t I know you from somewhere?