Almost anyone who lives in Alaska can recall their first or maybe even frequent bear encounters. I count myself in this group and can vividly remember the first time I encountered a bear up close and personal. Looking back on that incident, it doesn’t seem that dangerous but the excitement of the moment was adrenelin pumping. I had taken my friends on a walk from the boat harbor at Tenakee Springs out to the river to see if there were any brown bear catching salmon. On the walk out the trail through the woods we met several groups of people coming back. Each group carried a gun – not a good sign. When we asked them whether there were any bear on the river, we got an affirmative answer but that the bear were pretty scattered because the exposed tideflats. We also got a quizative stare because none of us were carrying a gun or even any bear spray, a practice I have since adopted.
Brown bear viewing at Indian River, Tenakee Inlet; photo by Fred Cooper
On reaching the river we walked out onto the suspension bridge for a clear view down to the tideflats. We indeed saw a bear fishing but after about 20 minutes of hoping for an opportunity to see one closer, I told my friends I had to get back to the boat and that they could come along once they had enough. Two minutes back on the trail I happened to notice some brush moving near the river. It could only be one thing and moments later I could see the brown back of a bear heading my way. It’s head was down and it had not seen me standing nearly paralyzed in the trail. I made the decision to retreat back to where my friends were at the bridge. After informing them that the opportunity to view a brown bear up close was iminent, we all huddled in the center of the suspension bridge hoping if the bear wanted to cross the river it would be satisfied to wade and not use the foot bridge. Well the bear was right behind me and stopped at the end of the bridge. It couldn’t make up its mind what it wanted to do. That was when it noticed some salmon in the riffles under the bridge. That was also when I learned just how fast a bear can move when it wants to. One second it was staring at the salmon, the next instant it was charging into the river and grabbing a salmon in its mouth. Then it waded the stream and walked into the woods to have its salmon snack. We took that cue to make a gracious exit from the bridge and return to the boat harbor.
Young brown bear on the bank of Indian River, Tenakee Inlet; photo by Fred Cooper
