Alaska's Winter Horizon

Alaska's Winter Horizon

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

McNeil River Day 2

We head back to Tennessee in a few nights. We are looking forward to having Christmas with family and friends there. So here's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. To finish out the blog for the year, here is another day from Greg's summer bear adventure. 
We left for the falls about 9:30 a.m. Today only 4 of our group, plus the guide, made the trip. The morning was a lot cooler which made it much more pleasant. My missing bag arrived last night so today I was armed with my sunscreen, video camera, and other essentials. 
We still split into groups when we arrived at the falls. With 2 of us going to the lower viewing area and the other 2 remaining on the upper viewing area with the guide. On the bottom, where I was, a folding chair on either side of us served as a barrier to the bears. 
Again today the longer we stayed, the more bears arrived at the falls. Trying to film them proved to be more difficult than I had counted on. As there was something going on all around me. It was hard to concentrate on just one spot.
This being the case, I mostly just snapped away with the digital camera.
 By the time we left, there were 26 bears at the falls at one time. 
 The day was also filled with very close encounters. One bear, after catching a salmon, ran up to within 4-5 feet of me before noticing that I was there. Upon seeing me, he quickly veered off and took another route.
 Watching these bears was so exciting and spellbinding, that before I knew it, the time was 8 p.m. and time to head back to camp. We were lucky again to have the high tide on our side and the boat picked us up after our 2+ mile walk and took us back to camp.