Wilderness Travel 1

This website describes the various forms of transportation commonly available for traveling to and from viewing sites. It explains how to utilize them most effectively and safely. Although risks of traveling in a bush plane or boat or by foot are not high, they are actually GREATER than the risks of bear attack. Precautions should be considered very carefully.

Page
1. Visions of majesty
2. Your physical capabilities
3. Driving
Flying
* Aerial photography
* Aircraft maintenance
* Pilots
* Safety precautions
* How to avoid harassing wildlife
* Will your pilot be your guide?
4. Boating
* Ocean-going craft
* Smaller craft
5. Hiking
* A walking stick can be invaluable
* Wading
* Muddy ground -- above and below water
* Quicksand, quick mud, muskeg and bog

VISIONS OF MAJESTY

Devil’s Desk Peak
(c) 2002 S. Stringham

From Mt. Douglas south past Devil’s Desk, the Barrier Range of the Aleutian Mountains was washed with patches of golden light as the sun broke through storm clouds and sent its shafts stabbing towards the ground.

I’d picked up four clients and their gear in Homer, on the Kenai Peninsula, then loaded them into a DeHavilland Beaver for a one-hour flight southwest to Katmai National Park. We headed straight across Cook Inlet to Kamishak Bay, passing St. Augustine volcano and McNeil Falls, then turning south along the Alaska Peninsula. Passing Mt. Douglas, then Four-Peaked Mountain, we marveled at Four-Peaked Glacier, the titanic river of ice that flowed between those towering massifs down almost to the ocean. Just short of the beach, each outer toe of the glacier ended in a lake of emerald-blue water. This water melted the glacial toes, undercutting them until gravity took over and splintered the ice. Decades before, I’d been present as a huge berg groaned and roared, ripped free of the glacier, then crashed into the water, producing a small tidal wave that rocked the armada of other bergs already scattered across the lake – a wonder that few people have ever seen at ground level.

Past Four-Peaked mountain opened the deep broad Kaguyak Valley, surrounded an ancient volcanic crater and cut by Big River, famed for its salmon fishering. Then on past Hallo Bay and into Kukak Bay. Although some flights end at the lodge in Devil’s Cove, our own destination was the tour boat and research vessel M.V. Waters. Captain John Rogers owned Katmai Coastal Tours, one of Alaska’s premier guiding services. Unlike most companies whose guides were boat or aircraft pilots, KCT employed only experts on bears and/or photography.

With a gentle splash, our floatplane hit the waves and coasted to a stop. We were quickly ferried aboard the Waters, then replaced by a group of out-bound viewers chatting ecstatically about their recent experiences.

Soon, we were on our way ashore. Kept dry by hipboots, we waded to the beach, then across a shallow river to a gravel bar where we sat for the next several hours watching brown bears racing after salmon and adolescent males sparing playfully. One mother with cubs, obviously nervous about two large males fishing nearby, walked around behind us, lay down almost 100 yards away, and began nursing her cubs. Even at that distance, the rumble of their purrs were clearly audible. Bear viewing just doesn’t get any better than that.
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PITFALLS OF WILDERNESS TRAVEL (1)
Which Mode is Best for You?
How to Avoid Common Problems

Too close for comfort.

Kara pays me a visit, climbing onto the log where I was sitting

and approaching to within 2 yards before continuing on her way.

(c) 2002 S. Stringham

Topics on this Website

Links to other Bear Viewing Association websites