More Day 1 from Greg's Adventure at McNeil River

By about midday several of the bears, full of fish, picked out a good spot to relax. While they rested, several more bears made their way to the falls and took over their fishing spots.

 This bear decided to take a break from the action.

 And again, another big male stepped in to claim his fishing spot.

 There were about as many different fishing techniques as there were bears. Some stood and waited in the same spot sometimes for up to half an hour before getting a meal. Others were much more active and chased  the fish they spotted in the river. This bear was more of a diver!

 Some preferred to stand in the currents and swat away!

 This big fella had eaten all he wanted for a bit and had to take a nap. As you can tell, he had his fishing technique down to an art. Judging by his size, well over 1,000 pounds, I don't think he missed many opportunities.

 All throughout the day, more and more new bears made their way to the falls.

 Big bears, like these, claimed some of the prime salmon spots in the river.

 This chocolate bear was one of the most prolific salmon catchers! During the whole four day adventure, he kept up the pace. Each day I could see him catching many fish in his chosen spot at the big rocks down from the falls.

 I don't know if this bear was puzzled or just enjoying a cool bath on this warm day.

More and more of the first bears in the waters that morning, the successful ones anyway, found a quiet place to rest.

More bear pictures later.
For now, we had our first snowfall of the season. Last Sunday night, October 19th, we got about three inches of snow downtown. Others on the hillside reported getting over 9 inches of fresh snow. Thank goodness the studded snow tires were put on the car this week!

Anniversary Trip 2014 comes to an end

We awoke Sunday morning to another overcast and cool day.

 We decided to just relax and take it easy.

Greg did attempt to fish for awhile. Wind, rain, cold, and staying tangled up in the seaweed soon proved too much and he gave up after about an hour.

 By the way, the fish we caught yesterday has been tentatively identified as an Irish Lord, not a lingcod. After Greg warmed up and showered, we had dinner at the Chart Room.
On Monday morning what do you know? It is bright and mostly sunny! It was also a bit warmer.

 It was a nice sendoff for our drive home. On the way home we did notice a lot of fresh snow on the mountains.

There was even snow along the roadside in several locations.

 We stopped beside the Kenai River for a picnic lunch of leftovers.

 We made several other stops including the overlook for this volcano.

 You can see a glacier far back in the mountains in these photos.

Rolling into Anchorage about 5:30, we made it home for dinner. We don't have any other trips planned until Christmas in Tennessee. Guess Greg will get to blog with more of his bear adventure pictures until then!

Anniversary Trip 2014

We left home around 5:00 Friday afternoon for our trip down to Homer. The weather forecasters had predicted snow tonight. Luckily, we never ran into any snow on our drive but we did notice fresh snow on the mountains along the way. However, we did encounter a big moose in Soldotna. This huge animal brought traffic to a stop in a busy intersection as it walked calmly across the road. We also narrowly avoided hitting a few big porcupines as they waddled across the road. After making a few stops for food and bait, we made it into Homer around 11:30. Saturday we went to the Farmers' Market and ate lunch in town. After a relaxing afternoon, it was time to get down to business. Fishing business.

 It was quite cold and windy on Kachemak Bay as we cast our lines into the water.

 I had several hits but could not reel one in.

Greg finally managed to catch a fish that weighed about 4 pounds.

 We think this is a lingcod.

 Greg will have to research and find out. We fished until Greg lost feeling in both hands from the cold and wet conditions. He finally had to give it up and call it a night.