Janet arrived yesterday and the connection from the site has been very weak. We picked up Janet from the airport from the evening jet from Juneau around five and had a glorious dinner at our favorite eatery, the Stikine Inn.
My friend Bob called just as we were finishing dinner and asked if we'd be interested in some salmon. "Of course" was the answer - we stopped by his place and then the town fish cannery for ice and drove back to the site to fillet and vacuum pack it - doing our best to prepare for an early morning.
We drove into the office early, dragging ourselves from bed into the cold confines of our camper. A brisk drizzle fell from the sky and fog enveloped the island - I ran the heater in an attempt to warm and dry the air in the trailer. We drove into town and were on the boat by eight o'clock heading for the Anan wildlife area. We had an incredible day at the falls - there were tons of bears in the area, including a large number of the huge coastal brown bears. We stayed on the platform for most of the day watching the bears gorge themselves on the hoardes of salmon struggling to swim the falls. It soon became obvious that the bears have a preference for only a few select parts of the fish - that being the egg sack, brains, and skin (not necessarily in that order). As soon as they've finished ripping these from the salmon, they dump the headless, belly-less carcass back into the stream for a fresh replacement.
On our way back to the boat, we encountered an adolescent brown bear traveling the opposite way on the trail. As you'll see, it took some coaxing to get it to give way. I'll post more pictures tomorrow.
My friend Bob called just as we were finishing dinner and asked if we'd be interested in some salmon. "Of course" was the answer - we stopped by his place and then the town fish cannery for ice and drove back to the site to fillet and vacuum pack it - doing our best to prepare for an early morning.
We drove into the office early, dragging ourselves from bed into the cold confines of our camper. A brisk drizzle fell from the sky and fog enveloped the island - I ran the heater in an attempt to warm and dry the air in the trailer. We drove into town and were on the boat by eight o'clock heading for the Anan wildlife area. We had an incredible day at the falls - there were tons of bears in the area, including a large number of the huge coastal brown bears. We stayed on the platform for most of the day watching the bears gorge themselves on the hoardes of salmon struggling to swim the falls. It soon became obvious that the bears have a preference for only a few select parts of the fish - that being the egg sack, brains, and skin (not necessarily in that order). As soon as they've finished ripping these from the salmon, they dump the headless, belly-less carcass back into the stream for a fresh replacement.
On our way back to the boat, we encountered an adolescent brown bear traveling the opposite way on the trail. As you'll see, it took some coaxing to get it to give way. I'll post more pictures tomorrow.
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