Cami Bringhurst: Bears and Eagles

Ok this was a little excursion that we did while in Petersburg. 18 of us hopped on a boat and headed out to Wrangall, for a short stop and then we headed out to 'Anon'. It is an island with Bears.

Here are Tierney and I in the back of the boat. It was VERY cold. You would think we were put back here as punishment cause we are the only ones back there, everyone else was in the heated cabin. But you would be wrong, we did it on purpose, and we sort of regretted it. The view was pretty, but it was FREEZING!

The view from the back of the boat.

Well we got to the 'Anon', and they dropped us off and said that they would be right back. Sure they had to go and park the boat, but remember we are on a BEAR watching excursion. Also the island was reminiscent of 'Jurassic Park'.

This is us waiting for the raptures, bears and/or the guides to appear.

Well they got there after 5 or 10 minutes and took us up this trail. We had 2 guides for 18 people one in front and one in back. We were merrily walking along the trail wondering what this was going to be like cause we (at least I) didn't have a clue as to what this was going to be like when the guide stopped, I looked up to see this:

Yep that is a black bear in the path. He stayed there for a while and just looked at us. It was so COOL and a little scary at the same time. They managed to talk him into moving on his way peacefully. Later we saw a bear cross over the trail with a Salmon in his mouth. Anyway they lead us to our 'Bear Watching Enclosure'. It was like a patio, one side was level with the ground and the bear could have stepped right over the railing and then on the other side it looked down over a river where the Salmon were running. One guide left us and one stayed (the cute one that looked like Jacob). Anyway we just hung out there for a few hours and watched the bears. We figured we probably saw about 8 come and go.

To the right of this picture is where the gate to our enclosure was, and that is a real bear, not CGI.

A picture of the Salmon jumping. I had to take at least 100 pictures on continuos shot mode to get this one picture.

We named the Bears, and even though they already have names, we didn't find it out until after we named them so I am going to stick with our names. They were cooler anyway. This is Chocolate Chip catching a Salmon, he immediately ran up a tree and ate it. It was cool.

Here is Tapeworm on the left (some may get this name on their own, but if you want to know the disgusting details I will tell you there was a tapeworm coming out of his bum, gross!). It is Ok cause we will just pass over him real quick cause he is not the most exciting part about this picture. The most exciting part is that I am introducing my FAVORITE bear PHIL, there on the left.

Here is Phil again. There are 3 reasons why he is my favorite: 1-He went for it. The other bears waited patiently and attacked and got the fish in one try. Phil was a trial and error type of guy, I guess that is just something that I admire in a bear. 2-He was funny. He would try a couple of times and then decide that maybe he should be patient, but then he would get bored and sit back scratch his chest or his ear and yawn, and then get right back into it. 3-There was something about his face that was just cute and kinda bashful. Once I decided he was my favorite I went back through all my pictures and I knew exactly which bear he was. I wanted to give him a hug, probably not a good idea, but I wanted to.

Here is Phil searching out a new spot.

This is my Favorite picture of my Favorite Bear.

Now it is time for a little story. There was an outhouse here that was outside of out 'Enclosure' and if you had to go you went one at a time, and you had to look out the hole at the guide who would tell you whether or not the coast was clear. Well we didn't have any problems....until little Josh had to go. Josh is nine and he wouldn't go by himself. His Grandpa, my Uncle Bill, had to go with him and wait outside. Well you can guess what happens. Sweet Mama came up, and Uncle Bill almost had to break down the door to get into the outhouse before she came. Well I think she knew someone was in there cause this happened:

She just plopped right down and stared at the door. They were in there for at least 10 minutes and it was Hilarious!

This is right when the door opened. I think it scared Josh pretty good, but it is a great story to tell.

This is us being silly while watching the Salmon Run.

Add Lauren.

Here we are on the way back. We only had one guide then in the front, and my Dad took up the rear. There were a few of us that kept looking back making sure he was still there. We only ran into one bear on the way back (listen to me, we 'only' ran into one 'bear' like all the sudden they are cute little things, and aren't this dangerous thing that could impel me).

Tierney thought that our guide was sure cute so we planned a photo op without his knowledge so she could get a picture with him. I got off the boat first and then waited and she came up behind him and did a really awesome pose and....I just missed it!

This is all I got. I sure blew it. At least everyone there had turned around and saw it though. We looked him up on myspace he is already taken (Tierney only time will heal your wound).

Another COOL thing was the Eagles. There are a TON in Petersburg. The best way to describe this is to say that I had an experience just like 'The Birds'. Except for the Crows were Eagles, They weren't attacking me, they were attacking dead Salmon right in front of me, and I wasn't scared I stood there with my mouth open. The guy threw out this hunks of Salmon and the Eagles came from everywhere and devoured it. It was AMAZING!