July 30; DON'T LOOK NOW....THAT'S A GRIZZLEY BEAR!

We stayed in camp yesterday, Friday. In the afternoon we took a long walk along the river because we had heard from the "bear specialist" that the bears had been out all afternoon the day before. So, armed with binoculars and camera, we went on a bear hunt! We walked and looked for a long time....and finally it paid off. There he was on the other side of the river. This grizzley is enjoying the berries.

This bear, named “Clueless”, usually comes and walks across the salmon counting “weir” and climbs the hill on the other side. He couldn’t today because there were too may folks at the other side, taking pictures.

The poor guy working at counting fish had to keep banging on the weir to scare the griz away…cuz he would have walked right up to him.

Now time to chow down! Grrrruph.

It was a cloudy day today; no threat of rain…just over cast. But the clouds over the Chilkoot Lake finally parted and we got a pretty picture.

Here we are camped in the middle of the rain forest.

This is not a good picture of the eagle flying…but that’s hard to get a good picture of. These eagles live here and are fishing, just like the bears.

This second eagle was just sitting up on a tree, looking regal. As one enters Haines from the north, we pass the Eagle Preserve on the Chilkat River. There thousands of eagles congregate to feed on the late run of chum salmon in October. Lots of eagles around here because of the food source.

As we were watching bears, I turned around and looked at the hill behind us and saw this cabin nestled in the trees on the side of the hill, facing the Chilkoot River. How awesome a place could you find????

Didn’t know that this southeast part of Alaska is a rain forest. It can get as warm as 90 degrees in the summer and no more than –15 degrees in the winter. Not at all as cold as you would think of Alaska.

Again….not a good picture, but this guy was keeping us company during breakfast. This is a steller’s jay. He is just beautiful, but had a hard time getting a picture since he didn’t sit still long.

Along the 10 mile road east of Haines, we saw this unlikely sight. These folks had made these rock decorations along the front of their yard. A miniature Stone Henge?

Mountain ash, growing along the river.

My favorite fireweed along this beautiful river, that the salmon are busily swimming up-stream to spaun.
Today we found internet at this internet cafe/espresso bar on Main street Haines. The southeast state fare is in progress this week end, and that's where we are headed. The parade starts soon. Logging events are early this afternoon. That's what we look forward to. Should be fun. The folks come from all over this southeast part of Alaska, and that means by plane or by ferry...."ain't no other way" to get here from the other islands or the south central area (the big part of AK); you could drive....but it's 750 miles from Willow, AK to Haines. That's a long haul....

So, enough for now. Looking like we're going to get a bit wet today. But, we're good with that....we've been through LOTS of rain this summer.

Enjoy your summer, folks.....until we "connect" again....