15 August, Saturday, Santa Anna Inlet 55º 59.166'N, 131º 37.015'W (off Seward Passage) AK

0700 we left Wrangell after 3 days. One evening and most of one day was spent fixing a plumbing problem -- successful after 3 trips to the Wrangell hardware store and much cursing. Last evening we had pizza and beer (Alaskan Amber, to which Craig I have become quite addicted since first sampling it upon our arrival in Dutch Harbor last month) with the folks off the N55 I mentioned in yesterday's blog; nice folks and an interesting visit.

We arrived in Anan Bay 56º 11.09'N, 131º 53.54'W late morning, dropped the dinghy and mounted the outboard engine. I took Craig and Anne into shore to meet the ranger and walk to the Bear Observatory. Dorothy, Rusty and I hung out on DE, watched an N62 which anchored for awhile in Anan, and had some chili and cornbread while waiting our turn with the bears (the anchorage requires someone to stay aboard, and Rusty was not allowed ashore in that area, so we visited the bears, in pairs...).

After picking up Anne and Craig, Dorothy and I went to shore for our bear visit. First the Forest Service Ranger gave us a briefing which included all kinds of interesting things to do while walking the half mile trail out to the observatory, to let the bears know we were there, and what to do if we met one on the trail. "If he comes towards you, don't run! but talk to him sharply, like a dog: "stop bear, come no further!" (Shit, maybe I should've brought a shotgun?!) I asked if an air-horn would work, and the ranger said - no shit now - "well that used to work, but they've gotten so used the air horns it doesn't work anymore"...Yikes!

Anyway, we started out the trail, and met several groups coming back from the observatory; no one seemed to be wounded or grieving a mauled loved one - that was encouraging. Never-the-less, I sang "teddy bear's picnic" all the way out the trail and back... just to be sure the bears knew I was cool.

All kidding aside the bear observatory is very cool, a platform overlooking a narrow point in a stream where pink salmon are leaping against the current and is a choke-point where the bears and dip in with claw or snout and get a fish. Or should I say fish, after fish, after fish. Alaska seems to be full of messy eaters - first that stellar sea lion in Bartlett Cove, Glacier Bay and now these guys. Anyway, Dorothy and I spent several hours watching four black bears fish, eat and shit. We didn't see any brown bears (grizzlies) at this location, although you may remember we saw one the morning we awoke in in Graves Harbor, after crossing the Gulf of Alaska.

In conversation with one of the Forest Service Rangers, she mentioned her home was in Minnesota and I asked if she lived anywhere near Lake Woebegone, to which she replied, quite earnestly "no I live up next to the Canadian border..." I guess you had to be there...