Just like this time last year I showed up at Lake Hood early in the morning and climbed into the front passenger seat of a floatplane. The pilot, myself, my friend Cheyenne, and two other couples from the lower 48 headed across Cook Inlet. This time we headed to a different location.
We flew over several pods of Beluga Whales. It has been many years since I have seen Belugas.
On the far side of Cook Inlet we saw lots of majestic scenery. I do not know the name of this river.
Another anonymous river, this one is milky from glacial melt.
In about 45 minutes we flew through a gap in the mountains and descended to the lake, (Otter Lake) dead ahead.
Our destination, Redoubt Bay Lodge, where we transferred to a pontoon party boat.
I forget the name of the boat guide, but he was the prototypical Alaskan Outdoorsman.
He took us across the lake to look at a beautiful waterfall. We heard loud crashing noises with ominous growling coming from behind the trees. The tops of the trees were shaking violently and several of them crashed to the ground.
Soon we saw what we came to see, a large coastal Brown Bear.
It walked in and out of the vegetation along the lake shore. We followed along in the boat.
It came out in the open for a short while. The guide recognized this bear. He said that he sees it every day. By the way I spotted a large Black Bear in Anchorage on the way to work this morning.
It moved along at a good clip.
There is more to come from this trip to Redoubt Bay Lodge.
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