The Traveling Widower

Tag: hiking

  • Day Four in Katmai National Park- A Bonus Outing and Back to Civilization

    Close-up of the paw of a bear standing on wet sand with water splashes.
    Sasquatch maybe?

    September 1st,  2026

    I had read reviews on the Nat/Hab site about how difficult it is to leave the Ursus and the bears. I understand that now. As much as I was looking forward to having a nice, long shower, a private bathroom, and dry towels, it was hard departing – once you get used to the routine and the people you are sharing the adventure with, it’s hard having it all end. But, since our plane was not arriving until 1:00PM there was time for one more short outing in Geographic Bay, where we started out. You can take a lot of picture in 2 hours. Thousands for some people on this trip. 

    The tide was out, so the bay was basically a big tidal flat, with small channels and a lot of ash/sand – easy walking for a change compared to the previous day. There were also lots pretty green algal mats, channel patterns in the sand, and a few soon-to-be-dry jelly fish to look at as we headed towards a fairly large number of bears close to mouth of the river. At least 11, and at least one cub.

    The only difficulty we had was a mud patch, which both myself and my cabin buddy found. He sank down to his knee (but saved his camera), and I had one foot trapped down to my calf. We both had to be pulled out. No damage done. 

    The were a lot of bears in the tidal flats, but they were scattered about – some fishing, some just lounging around. Our guide picked a nice comfortable, sandy bar in the middle of them all, and we settled in one last time on our green buckets and got to work. This was interesting photography – nice light, a beautiful background of mountains surrounding the bay, and great colors of the water – a lot of green and tan, to go along with the brown bears. Beautiful. We had a few close encounters, nothing like the day before, and got to see one bear rolling around on the sand, looking like a drunk that had fallen off the bar stool. And then he looked back and waved…..really. Here’s the proof. 

    A brown bear lying on its back in the sand, playfully waving one paw while surrounded by natural scenery.

    One huge, very old male wandered by as well. 

    A brown bear walking along a sandy shoreline, with a backdrop of green vegetation and shallow water.

    And then there were just lots of nice photo ops of individual bears with nice backgrounds. Hard to stop shooting.

    A large brown bear walking along a sandy shore with a backdrop of greenery and water.
    A large brown bear sitting by a riverbank, with lush green hills and trees in the background. Other bears are visible in the distance, and white birds are scattered along the river.
    A brown bear standing on a sandy shore with a natural landscape in the background.
    A relaxed brown bear lying on its back in a sandy area, surrounded by natural landscape.
    A brown bear standing on the shore of a river, looking out over the water with a lush green hillside in the background.

    But as we approached out two hour limit, our guide had us move over to the mother and cub – hard to pass that last opportunity up. 

    A young brown bear walking across rocky ground, surrounded by tall grass.
    A brown bear and a cub sitting in tall green grass, interacting with each other in a natural setting.

    We did have one more photo op on our walk back to the skiff – a not quite adult bald eagle, sitting quietly in a tree. Perfect!. I snapped a few shots with my phone, and then dragged the Sony out of my bag and shot a bunch more. I was hoping it would take flight but no such luck. Still, nice to get some good shots with the Sony.

    A bald eagle perched on a branch, surrounded by lush green foliage.

    This photo, and the ones of the cubs, were taken with my phone. I found out a bit later as we were finishing up packing for the flight, that the SD card had somehow become corrupted at the end of our outing. I lost all of cub shots, as well as all of the eagle shots made with the Sony. #$!@^!!!. I’ve never had that happen before. The good news is that it did not happen on any of the other days, when I was taking hundreds of pictures. That would have been a disaster.

    We had our last great lunch on the Ursus, finished up packing, and waited for our aerial Uber to arrive. Three of us were on a different plane this time, a smaller version of what we flew in on. Bonus round though – I flew in the co-pilot seat, and there was a full set of controls there! A chance to try out my flying skills. Maybe not. Besides, I fell asleep soon after we get off the ground/water. It would have been fun.

    A pilot with gray hair and glasses is seen inside a small aircraft cockpit, focused on flying. The view through the window reveals majestic mountains and a glacier below, with a small plane flying in the distance.
    Max likes to fly…(AI generated)

    The flight back was perfectly smooth – we really lucked out on weather for this trip. It was in the high 60’s when we landed back in Kodiak. The Nat/Hab leader was waiting for us at the airport, and offered up a few choices for the remainder of the afternoon. I was tired, and really wanted to just get to the hotel, but the rest of the group opted for door number 2, which was a hike in the rain forest. I was shamed into going along. It was a nice hike – easy trail, nice views of the forest and some of the old WWII installations. Thankfully, it was short, and we finally made it back to the hotel. 

    A pretty amazing day all around. Tomorrow I head off to Anchorage to the non-bear part of my trip. 

    Peace

  • Rising Tides and Raging Torrents – Day Two With The Bears in Katmai National Park

    August 30th, 2026

    Our second day in the Katmai was a real adventure. Imagine wading through strong currents in deep rivers, with roaring grizzly bears on either side, and standing around in clouds of biting insects while the huge bears fight to the death in front of you, with the trip lead standing there with flares lit, trying to keep the bears from mauling the group. 

    You’ve got a very good imagination.  That’s not what this day was like.

    We traveled North from Geographic Bay to Kuliak Bay in the morning, and dropped anchor a few hours later. The tides were out, so we had a long walk on a very rocky beach to get to the river where the bears would be feeding on salmon. That’s not a lot of fun, slogging along in waders and Frankenstein boots. This area was absolutely beautiful – the river meanders through the valley, with  large sections of thick grass along the channels. There were no roads or paved paths to follow – just criss-crossing trails of trampled grass created by the bears. With lots of piles of bear poop. It was just a little bit frightening walking through the trails, since you could not see too far ahead, and we were basically walking through the bear’s subdivision. Luckily, our trip leader knew what he was doing – that was the trust thing he had talked to us about. It worked really well.

    We had to cross the river a few times, but it was not very deep, with a nice, sandy bottom. Low tide changes everything. Walking in the tall grass on the bear trails was more difficult, since you were stepping on matted grass, but we all managed, even with all the camera gear and the buckets. Oh…something I forgot to mention – we carry green, lidded buckets along to sit on. You know, like the ones you see at Home Depot, but with a plastic seat as a lid. Awkward to carry, but lightweight, and they work better than portable camp seats, and are better than sitting on the ground.

    There were quite a few bears around, but much more scattered than at the previous site, so once we found a mother bear with two cubs, we settled in for a while. 

    Since it was low tide, there were not a lot of salmon in the river, but we did see the bears catch a few, and then quickly consume the fish. We also witnessed a few exciting interactions when two bears saw the same fish – they moved very quickly through the shallow water. Great for photographers, not so great for the less dominant bear which usually ran for the hills. Or river bank in this case.

    A brown bear splashes through shallow water near a sandy shore, with a bird standing on the ground in the background.
    A brown bear sitting on a rock in shallow water, surrounded by green grass and a sandy shore.
    A brown bear catching a fish in a river, surrounded by rocks and grass.
    Two brown bear cubs sitting in tall grass with a blurred natural background.
    Two brown bear cubs exploring a grassy field.

    Finding a mother with nursing cubs is the real bonus – the little ones are adorable, wandering around while the mother fishes for salmon, exploring the area but not venturing too far from Mom. The also cuddle and cling to each other, making for some really great photos. Seeing the cubs nursing the day before was really special – we did get a glimpse of that once again, but the mother was in the high grass, mostly out of sight.

    There was one truth in my leadoff to this post – the clouds of insects. We had our bug nets on all day today – there midges, no-see-ums and mosquitos out in clouds since there were no breezes at all. The nets work well – you just get used to it. Bug spray helps a little, to keep the nasty things off your hands. The adult bears seemed to handle it well, but the cubs did not. The photos look like the lens was dirty – nope, those are bugs flying around the bear.

    Two bear cubs playing and exploring on rocky riverbank with flowing water in the background.
    Those darn bugs!

    After returning to the Ursus for lunch, we lounged for a while, and headed back onshore later in the afternoon. The tide was rising, pushing the salmon upstream to the falls, so there was a better chance of seeing more activity from the bears. We were able to land much closer, reducing the amount of hiking on the rocky shore, and then retraced our path along the bear trails in the grass to a very small beach by the falls. 

    Once we settled in again on our buckets, we waited for the show to begin. There were a lot of salmon moving in but none working their way up the falls. Bears did start lumbering in. First we had the mother with two cubs – a real bonus since the cubs are fun to watch. The mother bear perched herself on the falls, and patiently waited for salmon to appear. Which did not happen. 

    Other bears wandered through, sometimes appearing out of the tall grass on either side. And some wandered very close to our little cluster of buckets. It got exciting once in a while. The mother exited with her cubs when a big male came downstream – that one started pulling rocks up, looking for fish. Amazing strength. That was fun to watch. Eventually, when the bear activity slowed down, we headed back out to the beach, boarded the skiff, and motored on back to the Ursus. Day two was not quite as exciting as our first outing in Geographic Bay, but it was still amazing – it was an adventure walking through the bear trails in the tall grass, and captured some great shots along the river and at the falls. Plus, we had more cubs.

    A brown bear walking along a sandy shoreline with tall green grass in the background.
    A brown bear standing among rocks near a river, with water dripping from its mouth.
    A brown bear standing on rocky terrain near water, with grass and moss in the background.
    A brown bear standing among tall green grass near the water's edge.
    Two brown bear cubs walking over rocky terrain near water.

    Peace