Intro to Brooks Camp

#775 "Lefty" taking a nap between salmon

You asked for bear pictures, and I'm here to oblige.

I had wondered how long it would be before I saw any bears, but I didn't have to wait long. On the drive from quarantine to the boat launch to go to Katmai, we very nearly ran into one on the road, just standing there. I was ecstatic, and also very grateful that my new coworkers, surely much cooler than I am and inured to the shock and amazement of seeing a bear, didn't hear the excited squeaks that were apparently coming from me. I'm a lot of things, but "chill" is not one of them.

When we landed on the beach, there were five bears. Five bears right there on the beach. Which one do you even look at when there's that many?! The Park Superintendent was there to meet us, and despite my valiant efforts to give him my full attention, he probably at most got 60%. I tried.

Every single person who comes in to Katmai has to go through a Bear Orientation before they're allowed to wander around. As a new Ranger, mine was extra long, including much more than the tourists get. Seems they don't want me to get eaten by bears. I appreciate that.
Now I actually am the one GIVING the Bear Orientations, and I've literally had bears run right through them. Sometimes 94 and her three huge cubs will come running through the camp. She likes to chew on the trees, and the cubs like to antagonize rangers. Sometimes giant bears like 747 will stomp right through, ignoring everyone but impossible to ignore (747 last year was scanned and weighed in at 1400 lbs. He's as tall as the cabins when he stands up. I'm still trying to get THAT picture.) Sometimes 435 will tree her cub right near the Visitors' Center and take a nap. Sometimes 213 will nap on the beach while her cubs climb up on the planes or chew on the boats.

#435 "Holly" and her little meatball taking a break from chewing plane ropes

The other day I had just finished telling a group of tourists how to handle bears they meet on the trails, and one asked "so, are the bridge and the falls the only places we'll probably see bears here?" Despite the fact that I'd just spent ten minutes telling them they might run into bears literally anywhere in the park, I managed to smile and answer "There's really nowhere you WON'T see bears," and just then a bear ran across the trail, maybe 40 feet from where we stood. Perfect timing.

I also have bears on the road. All. The. Time. Every time I leave my house I run into bears. Sometimes it's just one, but often it's several. They just pop out of the woods on every side. The other night I was walking with a couple other rangers and we ran into seven; one right after the other. We'd spot one out in front, but as we backed up, another would pop out behind, so we'd go sideways, and three more would come out, until we were totally surrounded by seven, just standing in the woods within 20 feet of all of them, waiting to see what they would do.

Bears

WAY!

Seriously guys, I just want to go take my lunch break.

Often that same thing happens when I'm walking alone, which is much more intimidating. Some of the scariest have been when I've been trapped between bears. I've had them pass within touching distance, and nowhere for me to go. I've unholstered my bear spray a few times, but luckily haven't had to actually use it yet.

Also, we had an earthquake! There was a 7.8 a ways away from us, so we got tremors strong enough to shake our cabins. Bears and volcanoes and earthquakes, oh my!

On one of my off days, I hiked up Mt Dumpling. The view was gorgeous, but the hike was not entirely fun. Ever heard of cow-parsnip? The way it was described to me was "it's like poison ivy, but instead of an itchy rash it gives you serious burns." Greeeeaaat. Mt Dumpling is covered in it. The trail goes right into an inescapable sea of it. Also it's taller than my head. I had to do the entire (very steep) hike with my arms up over my head.

The view from Mt. Dumpling

That is the entirety of the "developed" part of Katmai. Hey look! I can see my house from here!

Of course, Katmai has other animals too. Wolves come to enjoy the fish, but I haven't seen them yet. A moose was also spotted, but I missed him too. Even the porcupine who lives under the Visitors' Center has evaded me. The birds pose pretty nicely though.

Since we have Mergansers back home, I keep forgetting I should be excited about them

Spruce Grouse

I only had time to get one shot of this guy

Okay, okay, I know. More bears. If you insist.

Most people come to Katmai for Brooks Falls. I can't say I blame them. This year the salmon run is insane. At times over 800 salmon trying to jump the falls every minute; it looks like someone is tossing grenades in the water and the fish are just exploding out of it. The water is so full of them you could walk across from one side to the other without ever touching the bottom. They look like eels as they try to swim over each other.

Literally ALL FISH

Pictures don't do it justice.

Of course, it's not the salmon that attracts most tourists. It's the bears fishing for them. Well, I won't disappoint:

My favorite bear #480 "Otis"

Sometimes the journey of a thousand miles...

...ends very very badly

Of course, it isn't all fish massacre. There's also romance:

"Courting" often just means "following her everywhere"

and naps:

#128 "Grazer" and her spring cubs

The best, though, are the cubs. They are just aggressively cute. They give you that feeling of wanting to squeeze them like stuffed animal.

That's a literal thing: when something is so cute you get an overwhelming urge to snuggle the crap out of it. There's an actual term for it: "dimorphous expression," meaning a negative expression of emotions to an extremely positive experience. It's a thing, guys. Really. If you listen to any of the Rangers and a cute little cub comes by, almost all of them can be heard calling them "stupid adorable little bear nuggets" which really is the only proper term for them.

You look at these things and tell me they aren't stupid adorable little bear nuggets.

LOOK AT HIM

WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING HERE?!

Stop it. Stop it right now.

Okay, I can't even handle that anymore. Let's go back to the Rangers now.

You've all already met Rylee, fiercest of the bear techs, but it's time to add to the cast of characters.

Meet Cheryl:

She and I have our little cabin out in the woods, and it's working out great so far; our moods seem to line up perfectly, and many evenings find us in our side-by-side chairs, bear spray and radios on the side table, reading books until one of us realizes it's bedtime. Also she's a riot, so when we're not feeling so quiet, there's tons of sass. She's much nicer and friendlier than I am, of course, but that's to be expected.

Next door we have the LE (law enforcement) rangers. I guess maybe admin thought Cheryl and I needed to be kept out of trouble. If so, they picked the wrong neighbors.

Mike and Jim

On nights when Cheryl and I aren't being boring old ladies, we often play cards with the LEs and Rylee. Wait, I said when we WEREN'T being boring old ladies. Crap. Well, I guess even a life filled with bears and volcanoes can't be exciting ALL the time.

Okay forget everything I just said. Here are some more bears.