Lets start at the beginning. Upon arrival at Brooks Lodge in Katmai National Park Alaska,
we had to attend a short talk on bear safety.
Maybe this should be called People Safety. We learned things like the bears have the
right of way and we are the visitors, stay 50 yards
from any bear and 100 yards from a sow with cubs, make lots of noise on the trails and never
run if you encounter a bear and a few other things I will not get into at this time.
There is a short trail from the lodge area to a floating bridge (about 50ft long) across a river to the first viewing platform. This trail is patrolled by rangers during the day. If there is a bear withing 50 yards of the trail or the bridge, the trail and/or the bridge is closed. This is called a bear jam. These can last from a few minutes to 5 hours. If you are on the viewing platform side during a bear jam, you could miss any dinning and there are no restrooms on that side. The longest bear jam we were in was 3 1/2 hours.
From the first viewing platform there is a small dirt road about .3 of a mile and then a .6 of a mile path to the second viewing platform that overlooks Brooks Falls.
One morning after breakfast we decided to go to the falls. We started down the dirt road and it was just the two of us (this was mistake number one). We were approaching a curve in the road about 15 feet ahead of us making noise as we were told to do. All of a sudden a full-grown bear came around the curve at a full trot heading straight for us. Iris was on the right side of the road and I was in the center. There were small trees right up to the edge of the road. I took a quick glance to see where I could step. I took one step and with one foot on the edge of the road and one foot still in the road, the bear passed us. All I could see was a big head with lots of teeth in it. (Really, this is all I remember seeing as it ran towards us.) Everything happened so fast we were now just starting to get scared. We started to step back onto the road. To our surprise, around the corner of the road came another bear at full trot, right for us. I grabed Iris by the backpack she was wearing and was pushing her into the woods. While we were still standing on the edge of the road, this bear passed us without slowing down. It turned out a male bear was chasing a female looking for a little romance. Both of our hearts were racing and even though the bears were running away from us at this point, we got a delayed scared feeling. But we continued down the road toward the falls. For some reason which Iris does not know way, she glanced back over her shoulder and yelled something about a bear running toward us. At this place in the road there was a marsh on the left side of the road about a foot or so lower then the road. We both took a jump into the marsh not knowing what was there. Just as we turned back toward the road, the bear passed us and gave us a quick look but never stopped. Once again we picked up our hearts from the road and swallowed our stomachs back down. I don't know how many lives I have but I feel like I just used up three of them in about one minute.
We finally got to the falls and spent about three hours there. We then decided to head back by ourselfs (mistake number two). About 2/3 of the way back on the path, we came upon a sow with two cubs taking a nap about 20 feet off of the path. By the time I saw them we were almost even with them. My heart started racing and I made a quick decision to continue on (mistake (big) number three). I figured it may be worse to stop and backup then to go on since we were almost even with them. We picked up the pace a bit (but not running) and I told Iris we can't run. We kept looking in their direction as we kept walking down the path. We saw the sow lift her head and look at us but as we started walking away from them she put her head back down. If I had a fourth life, I just used it up there. Remember that rule about keeping 100 yards from a sow with cubs? Well, we broke it big time. At that point, we decided not to visit the falls again. The river viewing platform had enough action for us.
Everything happened so fast that we only got one picture of all of this and that was of the two bears running away from us which can be viewed here. The picture shows another couple was behind us and we have no idea why they did not warn us when one of the bears returned. Maybe they left after the first encounter. Who knows? Iris did get some video of the sow and cubs as we walked past them but not much as she could not look at where she was pointing the camera (too busy trying to stay on the path and get out of there).
We hope you like the pictures. We took 835 pictures of the bears and 964 pictures over all. It was hard to decide what pictures to place on the web as we had lots of good ones. We also took almost five hours of HD video.
I was thinking about putting a small video on the web. If anybody would be interested in this, please email me and let me know.
There is a short trail from the lodge area to a floating bridge (about 50ft long) across a river to the first viewing platform. This trail is patrolled by rangers during the day. If there is a bear withing 50 yards of the trail or the bridge, the trail and/or the bridge is closed. This is called a bear jam. These can last from a few minutes to 5 hours. If you are on the viewing platform side during a bear jam, you could miss any dinning and there are no restrooms on that side. The longest bear jam we were in was 3 1/2 hours.
From the first viewing platform there is a small dirt road about .3 of a mile and then a .6 of a mile path to the second viewing platform that overlooks Brooks Falls.
One morning after breakfast we decided to go to the falls. We started down the dirt road and it was just the two of us (this was mistake number one). We were approaching a curve in the road about 15 feet ahead of us making noise as we were told to do. All of a sudden a full-grown bear came around the curve at a full trot heading straight for us. Iris was on the right side of the road and I was in the center. There were small trees right up to the edge of the road. I took a quick glance to see where I could step. I took one step and with one foot on the edge of the road and one foot still in the road, the bear passed us. All I could see was a big head with lots of teeth in it. (Really, this is all I remember seeing as it ran towards us.) Everything happened so fast we were now just starting to get scared. We started to step back onto the road. To our surprise, around the corner of the road came another bear at full trot, right for us. I grabed Iris by the backpack she was wearing and was pushing her into the woods. While we were still standing on the edge of the road, this bear passed us without slowing down. It turned out a male bear was chasing a female looking for a little romance. Both of our hearts were racing and even though the bears were running away from us at this point, we got a delayed scared feeling. But we continued down the road toward the falls. For some reason which Iris does not know way, she glanced back over her shoulder and yelled something about a bear running toward us. At this place in the road there was a marsh on the left side of the road about a foot or so lower then the road. We both took a jump into the marsh not knowing what was there. Just as we turned back toward the road, the bear passed us and gave us a quick look but never stopped. Once again we picked up our hearts from the road and swallowed our stomachs back down. I don't know how many lives I have but I feel like I just used up three of them in about one minute.
We finally got to the falls and spent about three hours there. We then decided to head back by ourselfs (mistake number two). About 2/3 of the way back on the path, we came upon a sow with two cubs taking a nap about 20 feet off of the path. By the time I saw them we were almost even with them. My heart started racing and I made a quick decision to continue on (mistake (big) number three). I figured it may be worse to stop and backup then to go on since we were almost even with them. We picked up the pace a bit (but not running) and I told Iris we can't run. We kept looking in their direction as we kept walking down the path. We saw the sow lift her head and look at us but as we started walking away from them she put her head back down. If I had a fourth life, I just used it up there. Remember that rule about keeping 100 yards from a sow with cubs? Well, we broke it big time. At that point, we decided not to visit the falls again. The river viewing platform had enough action for us.
Everything happened so fast that we only got one picture of all of this and that was of the two bears running away from us which can be viewed here. The picture shows another couple was behind us and we have no idea why they did not warn us when one of the bears returned. Maybe they left after the first encounter. Who knows? Iris did get some video of the sow and cubs as we walked past them but not much as she could not look at where she was pointing the camera (too busy trying to stay on the path and get out of there).
We hope you like the pictures. We took 835 pictures of the bears and 964 pictures over all. It was hard to decide what pictures to place on the web as we had lots of good ones. We also took almost five hours of HD video.
I was thinking about putting a small video on the web. If anybody would be interested in this, please email me and let me know.
View the bear pictures
