Katmai Bear Trip

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Last Friday morning Greg and I, along with our friends Emily and Julie, set out for Homer for our bear viewing adventure. We got checked in for the bear excursion and then headed to Jenny Lane where we had rented a beach house for the weekend. We ate dinner and walked along Bishop Beach before retiring for the night. The next morning, we had to be at the airport at 6:45 for our flight. We headed out on a Cessna 206 around 7 for a 90 minute flight to Katmai National Park.
The winds made for a bumpy ride as we descended down near Hallo Bay. We landed right on the beach there and not a minute too soon as I was feeling super nauseous! We first spotted a female clamming on the beach during low tide.
She probably weighed about 400 lbs. and was easily the biggest bear we'd ever seen.
She moved around a bit on the sand searching for clams

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We got closer to her and watched as she dug into the sand in search of a snack.

She used her great claws to dig in the soft sand.

  She ate clam after clam.
Some brown bears break the clams open and then eat the soft morsel inside.

 This bear, however, chose to put the whole clam in her mouth and then spit out the shell bits.