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Travel

     

The World!
As seen by Marjean and Larry Larson

 marjeanlarson@peoplepc.com

9-22-08 The great travel piece was sent to Dick Keck and forwarded on to me. This is from Rocky, class of '38, one of Donna's buddies.

Can you post this on the Travel page?? Was Rocky's question to Dick, he sent it on to me and here it is, I did this with about 2 hours sleep so hope I got it somewhat correct. Gary

 

Flying to Ankorage with a day to spare before I joined a group of 16 on a Joe Van Os photo tour , i took a shuttle to the Zoo to get my first images of the BIG Brown Bears , Ursa Arctos Horriblis

Flying west in a Saab prop jet for a couple hours we landed in the huge Kamai National Park (5 times bigger than Yellowstone) at Big Salmon on the Alaska Penninsula, which is the start of the Aleutian Island chain, and transferred to a small float plane for our final half hour to Brooks Lodge.

The wilderness enroute had boocoo lakes and swamps and rare habitations and roads

Landing at brooks lodge was conditioned on no bears on the beach since the bears own the park and suffer the homo sapiens to stay out of their way.

First thing ashore was in the park headquarters where the signs and the lecture  emphasized the point and made sure we all knew that 50 yards was as close as we should get to a bear on the trail or road or beach.

This is what a sleeping bear on the beach looks like at 50 yard with a 450 mm lens .

Soon after, standing in front  of the dinning hall, this bear walked by on the beach at about  20 yards

The beach gravel was filled with tracks

Our accommodations  were in these cabins and often a bear walked through where the red coated man is walking

These cabins face a view of one arm of the shallow lake with marsh edges and islands where often we could see 10 to 15 bears fishing or playing and several fishermen out in waders.

About 300 yards from the dining hall along a broad path, inland from the beach about 50 yard was a bridge across a narrows and at the far end the first of three safe viewing platforms monitored by rangers at it land point and on the platform to determine safe crossing times since the were always bears in view .

This one on the left

and this mother and her yearling on the right just below the platform

From this platform it was a 1.6 mile walk along the lake, the through woods to the Brooks river with one platform at the falls and one 200 yards downstream in the riffles.  The river and the lakes were full of Sockeye Salmon and all the bears were eating most of the time.

 

At the Falls were usually two or three bears with others just downstream

 

 

 

Some were in the fish ladder right under the platform

 

 

and so the end

 

ps  many of the groups at the lodge were there for the fishing

A great trip and as usual great to be home

Rocky Rockwood  - MAD '38

Rocky Rockwood
129 N. Lotus Beach Dr.
Portland OR 97217
lrockyr@comcast.net
503 285 9698