Brooks Camp - Bear Viewing

We flew to Brooks Camp at Katmai National Park & Preserve for our first week of bear-viewing with the veterans and their spouses. As we came in for a landing, we saw there wasn't a single float plane tied off on the beach. Through my earphones Mark Lang (bush pilot, head guide and the director of Samaritan Lodge) said "Mmm, not a good sign."

But as I dodged through the passengers to the back of the plane in preparation for docking, one of the veterans exclaimed, "A bear!" Through the rear window, across from the mouth of Brooks River, we could see a sow and her two cubs walking along the beach. We had managed to arrive along with the first bears!

Brooks Camp is on the shore of the Naknek Lake. Sockeye Salmon run through Naknek Lake and up Brooks River on their long journey to spawn. The salmon reach a set of falls about two to three miles up the river. Where the salmon congregate, bears congregate. And where bears congregate, so do bear-watchers. That's us!

When we arrived with our first group, a

visiting photographer had set up camp on the bear-viewing platform by the falls. He had been watching all day and remarked that the sow (in the photo above) had spent the whole day at the falls and had only caught one fish, poor gal.

Two days later, the salmon had definitely made their debut at the falls in record numbers. My photo shows about two fish, but over the course of an hour, we saw thousands of fish attempting to ascend the falls. In his 28 years of guiding, Mark had never seen so many fish. In a one minute interval we counted 143 fish and that was a fraction of the total.

Somehow the bears haven't gotten the memo yet. We flew to Brooks twice last week. We only saw three adult bears and two cubs on the first trip, and two adults on the second (one of whom was sleeping). But with the arrival of the salmon, the bears will begin arriving and things will get exciting.

We did have a little excitement on our second trip to Brooks. We saw a sow charge halfway into the river toward a group of fly fisherman. She clearly took exception to the fishermen (who are allowed to fish one mile from the falls in either direction). It will come as no surprise that they gave way to the bear and slowly backed out of the river and back onto the trail. Fortunately for the fishermen, the altercation ended peacefully with the sow returning to the shoreline and sitting down. Another group of fishermen were also trying to return to the trail and away from the bear, but only after taking photos and video of her first.

The trail that the fisherman take diverges from the main trail and shoots off through the forest, meandering through long sedge grasses to the river's edge. The grass grows above the height of a man's head as the summer progresses and hides even the largest bears from sight. One of the Katmai rangers (half-jokingly/half-not) calls the fisherman's trail the "Hall of Terror."

To check out Brooks Camp go to: www.nps.gov/katm/planyourvisit/brookscamp.htm

Porcupine's Nest or Home Sweet Home in Alaska

Many of you have requested a photo of my lodgings in Alaska. The building I live in is called "Porcupine's Nest" and fittingly enough, a porcupine waddled by our dwelling last week.

Our little "eight-plex" has four rooms on the front side and four on the back. I live in unit "C" and as you can see, my door is covered with white mosquito netting and on the porch by my door is a row of shoes: filthy hiking boots, a pair of Keens, and my wading boots.

From the left of the photo, my neighbors are: Eric (in A) (Cook), Katie (B) (Assistant Cook), & Becky (D) (Housekeeping).

My room has space for a bed, bureau, chair and a small cubby. Through the opening to the right of the bureau is a small private bathroom with shower.

I have lovingly named "C" my little monk's cell. The only thing truly lacking is a writing surface. My bed does double duty, so writing and sleeping often merge as a result. In fact...(yawn), I'm headed for bed now. Love to you all!

P.S. Christine -- it's my own tiny-tiny-tiny!

Tanalian Mountain

June 20: Thursdays often find me gasping and wheezing my way to the top of Tanalian Mountain along with some of our veterans and their spouses. I have to be honest with you, hiking to the summit of a 4,000 foot mountain every week was not on my personal PT list. But, when you see a veteran with a prosthetic summit the mountain, you swallow your lame excuses (along with a half dozen ibuprofen), lace up your boots, and go. 

In the photo, the point of the ridge acts like an arrow pointing to Samaritan Lodge Alaska and the community of Port Alsworth. The two parallel strips of gray in the dead center of the photo are the dual (and dueling) airstrips. Peninsula & Lake Air owns the runway on the left and Lake Clark Air owns the runway on the right. Lake Clark Air has the coolest ball caps and the dustiest runway. Samaritan Lodge Alaska sits smack dab in the middle of the two runways on the bay side of Lake Clark. 

The rounded brown hump of land to the left of the ridge is an alpine meadow called "the Knee" where we rest, eat our lunch and pray fervently for the tenacity to reach the top. The climb is six miles up and six down. Imagine being chained to a Stairmaster for eight hours while watching National Geographic and you'll have some idea of how I spend my Thursdays. 

Only, I'm chained to truly remarkable people. Last week one of the injured vets made it to the summit; and down below in the Bunker at Samaritan Lodge, his wife watched through a high powered scope in growing wonder and astonishment. When she saw his red shirt appear at the tip-top of the mountain, she yelled, "That's my man!" 

Lacing up my boots on Thursdays isn't always easy, but I wouldn't trade my job for all the easy chairs and blister-free feet in the world. 

Tanalian Falls in May & Nesting Eagles

When I first arrived, the waterfall (Tanalian Falls) was partially frozen and you could walk out to the center of the riverbed. Now, the rock I'm standing on in the picture is completely submerged and the pools below the falls are ferocious cataracts of swirling water.

The eagle in the picture below is just flying off her nest (on the far left). Minutes later, the male of the pair took her place. As of yesterday, the pair was still on the nest incubating their eggs. I hope to see baby eaglets later this summer!

Week One at Samaritan Lodge Alaska

June 9: I'm relaxing on the back deck of the "Bunker" -- a building which serves as a dining hall for staff and a general lounge for both staff and guests. Depending on your age or weight, the Bunker is either the pits of hell or the heights of heaven. By the mandate of Franklin Graham, fresh home-made cookies must be available at all times!

Right now, I'm settled in a LL Bean chair looking out over Lake Clark and the Chigmit Mountain Range (a sub-range of the Aleutian Mountains).

Weather has been mostly glorious since my arrival in Alaska, an unusual phenomenon, or so I'm told. Last year, "liquid sunshine" was the order of the day. But this year, Alaska is preening, showing off like a young bush pilot.

On Friday, we said good-bye to our first group of veterans and their spouses. I'm officially broken-in to Samarian Lodge Alaska -- and so are my hiking boots! Monday morning the head guide asked me to take three couples on a half-day hiking trail that runs along the lower slope of Tanalian Mountain. My Asolo's racked up the miles all week, with two more trips to "The Falls" -- a two-and-a-half mile round-trip hike to a stunning cascade on the Tanalian River. Those who are inclined to fish packed in their waders, boots, and fly-fishing rods, and we cast below the falls for beautiful little Arctic Graylings. The small fish took a nymph pattern called a Copper John., though they are also coming up to dry flies.

On Thursday, three of us guided a 10-hour, 12-mile hike to summit the Mountain (3,560 feet) with a group of fifteen. Eight of our participants made it to the summit -- which is an incredible feat considering the terrain. We stopped and ate lunch at a spot called "the knee"; it's a beautiful alpine meadow full of tiny flowering plants and I annoyed everyone by singing Sound of Music tunes at the top of my lungs.

Friday morning was a relatively light day. The couples took a float plane outing to a historical site, then in the afternoon we gathered at the lake for baptisms, followed by closing ceremonies.

WARNING! I realize that everyone has a different comfort level with spiritual conversation and talk about Christianity or about Jesus Christ. I want to respect the various faith backgrounds of my friends (and readers). As most of you know, I am a follower of Jesus and He's pretty much the love of my life. So from time to time, I'll write about my own spiritual journey, and also report what I have witnessed in the lives of these couples (in an anonymous and general way) when something marvelous happens. But to honor you as best I can, I'll try and issue a warning if an upcoming paragraph has overtly spiritual content and you can choose to read it or skip to the next one! I hope that works for everyone. If I forget, please remind me!

THIS PARAGRAPH HAS OVERTLY SPIRITUAL CONTENT!
I wish I could post photos of the baptismal service. Three of our participants surrendered their lives to the love of God and braved the forty degree water of Lake Clark to be baptized. Having jumped in to the lake once, I know it takes both spiritual and physical bravery to plunge beneath those waters and come up a new person in Christ.  As our chaplains lowered each person into the water, four sea gulls wheeled over our heads crying. One of the men being baptized was a young veteran who had chronic sores from a battle wound that had plagued him for years. When he professed faith in Christ, his sores were immediately healed. The next morning, his wife caught me on the boardwalk and said, "(He) said his heart feels clean for the first time."

Next week is an abbreviated week for me. An air taxi will take me to Anchorage on Thursday afternoon where I'll catch a flight to the Lower 48. God willing, I'll be in Lexington, Kentucky, on Friday morning. This weekend is my dad's 80th birthday and I'm racking up the miles with Alaskan Air to make it home for the festivities. I'll be home Friday and Saturday, then catch the first flight out on Sunday morning to head back to Alaska. If you want to call, I'll have phone service starting at around 10am on Friday until Saturday around 4pm (big doings on Saturday night and I won't be answering my phone).

For those of you who want to know, my mailing address is:

Samaritan Lodge Alaska
c/o Elizabeth Jones
PO Box 192
Port Alsworth, AK 99653