20060613 No Photo Finish

Note: you can click on the image for a larger version.

I've been taking a little kidding lately about the number of photos I have been taking and the subjects. All through training I snapped away at such things as the form authorizing us to carry pepper spray. The photos have come in handy for evening programs and not just my own. Sabrina is using some of the pepper spray photos for her program on bear/human interactions through the years, and may even be using the shot of the authorization form.

Everywhere I go here a point-and-shoot digital camera goes with me. A few other folks carry theirs as well. You just never know what you'll run into here and when. Take yesterday for example.

The Brooks River is all of a mile and a half in length. For the past several days interpreters have been staffing two key points along lower Brooks River: the lower platform and "the corner", a sharp bend in the path where it reaches the river a bit past the fish freezing building. The start of this assignment coincided with the opening of fishing season for rainbow trout. Each day since then it seems more anglers than the day before are standing in the shallow river wearing waders and casting fly rods.

One interpreter stands upon the lower platform and another at the corner. Our job is to keep a watch out for bears and alert the anglers in time for them to maintain the requisite 50 yards from an ambling brown bear. Since the start of fishing season we have felt like prison guards watching people fish. Bears have been seen in the vicinity of the lower river only a couple of times. Until yesterday. I saw three on my four hour shift.

The first two were well off and posed no threat to anyone nor anyone to them. The third was a different story. Bears commonly use the Naknek Lake beach as a travel corridor. They move south along the beach to "the point", turn right and wander along the north shore of the river. This is what bear number three did yesterday, when I was assigned to the corner.

Trees blocked my view of the bear but my colleague on the lower platform kept me apprised of its position. My supervisor was in the area and let me know that I might need move toward the bridge to notify some anglers of the approaching bear then "close the corner" and move out of the area.

I moved west along the path toward the anglers and shouted over the river noise to let them know that a bear was coming and for them to move away. I made a general radio announcement that the corner was closed and that I was moving toward the fish freezing building. Then I turned around to face the corner.

There was the bear, now at the corner where I had been standing and no more than 50 yards away. This was no gangly goofy subadult like we have been seeing for the past month. This bear was LARGE and round, surprisingly round for this early in their wakeful period. Woow!

This was the first time I had been forced to move by an approaching bear, not that the bear was after me. I just happened to be in his travel path. Still, a bit intimidating. Without delay I took a shortcut path to the fish freezing building, avoiding the corner. And guess what? No photo.