Today was our last day in Lake Clark. This long trip was winding down. We had two last formal activities at the lodge: a sunrise trip out to find the bears and then breakfast. After breakfast, one group would catch a 9:30am flight back to Soldotna and we would fly out on the 11:00am flight. The weather was great. Interesting, but non-flight affecting clouds for sunrise and no wind issue.
Belle loaded us up early and headed out to the south beach area where we saw an amazing sunrise.
While we were amazed at what we saw, some movement off to the left. In the very early, pre-dawn darkness three dark fuzzies moved toward us. As they got closer, it was Aggrow and her two cubs. They came down, hung out at the mud flats/beach, apparently just for a photo shoot. They didn’t spend much time looking for food.
Suddenly Aggrow and one of her cubs snapped to attention. Another bear was headed toward the beach. She took off like a lighting bolt toward the other bear.
They exchanged words and a few bear slaps before things calmed down. She packed up her cubs and left the playground to the lone bear. It turns out it was Blaze, a bear we saw earlier in the visit.
This morning session created some very memorable photos and some of the favorite from the trip. It was time to go, breakfast was waiting. We packed up for our final ride back to the lodge.
Our flight out was pretty much on time, with a nice smooth ride back to Soldotna. We picked up our rental and headed north. Our first stop was at the “Moose on the Loose” a small bakery to pick up some pastries for back home. Our plan was to drive back up Alaska Highway 1 with a planned stop at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC).
Lunch was a problem. There is almost nothing, in particular on a Sunday open between Soldotna and Girdwood where the AWCC is located. One small tourist wide-spot in the road called Cooper’s Landing had some limited opportunities. Instead, we gassed up the car and got some snacks from the mini-mart and made the decision that we would have a late lunch/early dinner at the place we missed on the way down: The Turnagain Arm Pit BBQ. More on that later.
Naturally, we made several stops on the way back to the AWCC looking for some interesting landscape opportunities.
We rolled into the the AWCC a zoo-like facility, where their main goal is to take in animals that can’t live in the wild and give them a good life. They have also brought wood bison back from extinction. All of the animals are native to Alaska. It only takes about an hour to walk it, or you can drive it as well. Like many zoo-type facilities, several of the animals were off exhibit or hiding from view.
With the AWCC in the books, it was off to the “Arm Pit”. To be fair, this is the “Pit BBQ” on the Turnagain Arm, but that’s no where near as entertaining as the Turnagain “Arm Pit” BBQ! The food was pretty good for BBQ not in Texas, Kansas City, or North Carolina.
Anchorage came up on the maps app way too soon. The person we rented the car from wanted us to return it to his home, which wasn’t far from our path and he would deliver us back to the hotel where we checked back in and got re-packed for our 4:15 shuttle ride to the airport for the 17-hour ride home (10 flight hours, 3 layover hours, 4 hours lost to timezone changes.) Getting into RDU at almost 11pm was rough. To make matters worse, Sherry had to go into to work at midnight for a 12-hour shift.
But we got home, closing out what will likely go down as our greatest adventure.