Gary had heard there were bear sightings the past two nights out by the Russian River, so that's the way we headed. (Apparently a few other people heard about it too, because almost everywhere we went there were about 5 cars, all there for the same reason!) We drove just outside of town, and stopped when we saw the caravan of cars parked and people standing at a distance from a riverbank. For there, about 40 yards off, was a young "tween" bear, jumping after salmon with the vibrance and clumsiness of inexperience! It was great. He didn't even notice the 15 people staring at him - and the little boy throwing rocks toward the water - while he caught a fish and took a bite, then jumped back in the shallow water to grab another course for his supper. (See pic, below)
That was so exciting to watch. Jaime and I also went further down the river (far away from the bear) to watch the salmon run. Another first for me! Groups of grey-colored salmon just seemed to hover, swimming in place like they were waiting for a light to turn green! (Or maybe they knew there was a bear up ahead, and were waiting for his belly to get full) A light rain was falling as we saw one particularly determined salmon jump and fight up a small creek and into the main part of the river!
Satisfied but seeking further adventure anyway, we all carried on, traveling further down the road. We drove around a slightly more rural neighborhood, about which Jaime noted, "if you buy a house here, you get the bears for free!" But we didn't see any Kodiak Brown Bears there. So we started to head back to town. And then I saw them... out of the corner of my eye, something was splashing and jumping around in a little part of the river that no passers by had noticed - more bears! I was excited and didn't want to freak out the driver (Gary) by sounding panicked, but I managed to say "Baggins... Shire..." (Just kidding! That's not what I said.) I really said "Turn around! I think I saw two bears playing in the river back there!" So Gary wheeled the car around and we slowly started back towards the spot where I had seen them.
There they were! Two - no, three - fairly large bears, having a ball getting their long-awaited (and very late) salmon feast! One young & foolish (i.e., more dangerous) bear was only about 20 feet away from us, but was down an incline off the road. My mom crept out of the car with her camera, and I followed suit. I felt like a National Geographic photographer, getting close to the action. And then, very aware of us, it stood up to smell our scent on the air (bears eyes aren't that great, so they stand up to get a better whiff), and I couldn't help but wonder if it could cover those 20 feet faster than my mom & I could cover the 5 feet back to the car!
Thankfully, the bear was more distracted by all the fish swimming around it than by two funny smelling humans! My camera settings were all wrong, but I had to take pictures as quickly as I could in this possibly once-in-a-lifetime photo op! And of course, once another car saw us parked at this "unknown" spot, they whipped out their cameras and got out of their car, followed by another car. But the bears were getting nervous at this point, so they all ran off. But we were the first ones there! It was so awesome to see these powerful and beautiful creatures in their natural habitat!
(Actually, it looks in the picture like there were 4 bears - see the dark blobs in the background?- but I only noticed 3 at the time. Hmm...)
And that's what we did for fun on this rainy Friday night in Kodiak. :)
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