A Short Bear Story

 "The life of man [in a state of nature] is solitary, nasty, brutish, and short.  ~  Thomas Hobbes

This will be a short story.  It happened yesterday after we got off the boat.  We met a nice couple from Wisconsin who talked about seeing Salmon still spawning in the Portage River at the Williwaw Fish Viewing Platform.  

This platform is on the way out of Whittier and Ann wanted to see the Salmon so we watched for the sign and pulled into the nice parking lot. 

The platform is a very short distance from the parking lot and sure enough, we looked down and saw  Salmon holding position in the stream right under the water.  There were a lot of them. 

 

This totally unprofessional video shows what we saw.

Right across the bank from the viewing platform was a grassy area that was all flattened out and had salmony fishy parts strewn all over it.  I took a picture....but I ain't posting it.  If you want to see fish parts that had been left behind by a sated bear, let me know. I'll email them.  

We also walked up a path under the road bridge and saw many more salmon and some dead whole salmon carcasses laying on the shore.  

We got back in the car and as we drove over the bridge to leave Ann looked right up the stream and yelled, "There's a bear!"  I looked quickly and saw a brown bear rump disappearing into the dense underbrush that lines the stream.  It was probably 50' or so from where we had just been standing around looking at dead fish like dumb tourists.  

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad / Geoff