Great Days on the Trail

Immature Bald Eagle

   Early in the spring I walked the Chilkoot River when it was flowing only ankle deep, looking for fishing lures that had been lost during the prior fishing season.  I found a few rusted pieces and some fishing line, which I balled up and put in my pocket to discard.  A beautiful day though for early spring and I made the most of it.  Although there was not much as far as wildlife, other than eagles and a seagull or two hoping for a small morsel of anything the river could bring to them.  Now, three month's later the river is flowing deep and full of life.
   
  
The fish weir is about a third of the way up the road, and at any given time when the salmon are running, you will see a park official sitting in the middle of the weir, counting the salmon as they make their way up the river and into the lake to spawn.
The local bears know the weir is the easiest place to catch the salmon and so, they frequent the area. Signs on both sides of the weir warn driver's that it is illegal to stop between them. The signs help to give safe passage to the bears trying to get back and forth across the road or simply, their own space. There are area's along the road to park and take in the scenery.
  

After driving along the one mile river, the road opens up into a state maintained campground and boat launch.  Visitors can camp and enjoy fishing the lakes many different species of fish.  The lake is glacier fed and is surrounded by the Takshanuk and Coast Mountain ranges, on the south end of the lake is the headwaters of the Chilkoot River.

On a calm day, the lake produces a mirror like image of the mountains that make it easy on the eyes, to simply sit back and get caught up in the moment.

This sow brown bear is one of the parks resident bears you may see fishing on the river. 

All three cubs are fighting over Jake's rope they found laying in the yard.  When they left, they took the rope with them and dropped it down over the hill, which Jake found a few days later.

A playful moment

The last two weeks have been the "coming out" for the bears.  I have seen a few black bears, a big boar brown bear, a sow brown bear with two cubs, ( on the Chilkat River) and the collared sow brown bear with her three cubs.  Oh, yea; with all the excitement about bears, I forgot to mention, I saw a cow moose along the Haines Highway too.

This black bear tried sneaking pass my room early one morning a few days ago, but could not escape Jake's nose.  Jake was way ahead of schedule sounding the alarm, it was another five minutes until the bear crested the hill toward the back of the building, and acting almost as if it didn't know were were watching, all the while Jake lay still, watching and growling.  Then.....it suddenly stopped!  It glanced down at me long enough for me to take this photo and then continued on. 

Most of these bears however, will soon be on the rivers fishing for the Sockeye Salmon that are beginning their migration back to the place they were born, to spawn and begin a new cycle of salmon.

Sign along the Park road

As we were preparing for another trip up the trail, I received a special request from Cheyenne and Riley's (Tiger) Father; they would like me to personally escort them on the trail.  They both enjoyed playing in the bit of snow that was left at the lake.  Cheyenne was having fun sneaking up on me and hitting me with snowballs.  The three of us had a great day and many interesting conversations, and it's no wander; our birthdays are all in the same week of November, making us Scorpio's. Hi, to my friends Cheyenne, Tiger, Mom and Dad in Australia.