The day started off trying to find a breakfast spot. We had to be at the small airport around 8:30am to catch our 9:00am ride to Lake Clark. Again, our planned stop didn’t work out, but we found this Sports Bar named Buckets not far from the hotel. The hotel hasn’t offered a breakfast since the outbreak of COVID-19, so a quick check of Yelp lead us to this restaurant. Breakfasts at most places are quite predictable. They can be measured on how good their bacon is. Buckets won the day: nice, think, crisp bacon!
Soldotna is a pretty small town, so it only took about 5 minutes to get to the airport where we checked in with Natron Air, the sole air taxi provider to the Alaska Homestead Lodge. A 30-minute flight awaited us, except for one problem: Low level clouds over the Cook Inlet was preventing VFR (Visual Flight Rules) traffic from making the trip.
As the others for the flight showed up, so did an extra couple. Wednesday’s weather was worse and they couldn’t fly in at all that day. The plan came in place to take the six of us over on the first available flight, and then our luggage and gear would come over on a later flight. Panic sets in as I certainly did not want to get separated from my camera gear. Still the weather persisted. Concern about not making it there at all sat in. We waited, and waited for the ceiling to lift. After about three hours, we got the call! Load up. A break in the clouds would allow Tim, our pilot to climb above the clouds and make the trip, There was no lollygaging, no taking selfies with the plane. Get in, get buckled up, and go.
30 minutes later, we made a right hand bank and Tim brought is in on a smooth beach landing. Waiting for us was Belle, our guide for the trip with her AATV (will explain that one in another post), er. ATV with two single-axel aluminum carts in tow. This would be our transportation around the park as we looked for coastal brown bears.
Note: Belle was simply amazing the entire time we were there. More on her later.
Lunch was being delayed a bit for our flight, so she towed us back to the lodge, gave us a brief orientation, showed us to our rooms and sent us upstairs to meet Bruno, our French chef and Oliver, the owner to come in for a more detailed orientation.
This trip was not only a wildlife viewing/photography trip, it was a culinary exploration trip. To be honest, I’m a very picky eater. Sherry isn’t far behind. I’ve never eaten chowder and if you asked me, I never would, but if I were eating lunch, it was a halibut and salmon chowder. So I bore down and tried it. It was quite good. I finished most of it. Sherry has a major aversion to fish. She will eat canned tuna covered in mayo or canned salmon if it’s croqueted. But fish just makes her ill. To her credit she tried it. I think she survived on the small lettuce and raspberry balsamic dressing.
Oliver came up and told us the somewhat bad news. It’s the worst salmon run in history. Bears were scarce, but they would do their best to find them for us. He “floated” the idea of a boat trip to Duck Island, not far away for puffins on day two, but we would have to work with what we could find.
The basic plan each day was:
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 6:45am | Search for bears |
| 8:00am | Breakfast |
| 9:30am | Search for bears |
| 12:00pm | Lunch |
| 1:30pm | Search for bears |
| 6:00pm | Happy hour |
| 6:30pm | Dinner |
| 7:45pm | Search for bears |
| 9:00pm | Retire |
Sure enough, no bears were to be found. The tide was coming up which blocked beach access. The ATVs do have a maximum depth they can drive through. Oddly, it became apparent, the tides affected the flights in and out. You can’t land on a beach when there is no beach!
Belle, for three days led us around the meadows, lakes, and beaches in search for bears. We generally would find a bear and or cubs around once or twice a day. Still, it was enough to get some amazing photos and to feel the thrill of an 800 pound lethal predator walking mere meters away.
Even with the limited number of bears, we saw plenty of other wildlife and had opportunities to photograph them. Each day brought amazing landscapes for us to see.
