Good-bye to July!

The end of the trail.... Chilkoot Lake in the distance.

   The end of July already?  The fireweed has grown high and flowered and is now standing with barely a flower on it's stem.  Jerry says, "only six weeks until winter after the flowers fall off," so, by Jerry's calculations it looks like we may have about eight weeks to go. 

Happy 4th

    One morning last week a storm was blowing in with winds hustling out of the south, turning the sea water from smooth to, too rough for a small boat.   Jerry and I were sitting on the front porch with our morning coffee, of course discussing the rain that was coming our way.  The weather is a big topic of conversation in Alaska mostly because, we work, fish and play in it.  We don't have time when working or fishing to wait for good weather, that may never come.  With seasonal work being our main livelihood, we work through until winter.
   Our discussion on the weather had played out and we were sitting quietly on the porch watching it all roll past, when we heard a whistle coming our way,  that was obviously unmistakable, "a whistle in the wind."  Jerry and I turned to look at each other, as we both new what we just heard, " the first howling wind of winter," an eerie sound, too.

  I haven't seen even a hint of a brown bear on the trail now in weeks, with all the salmon running into Chilkoot Lake they have all made a mad dash to put on as much fat as they can before it's time to go to sleep for the winter. 

The black bear seem to be quite happy with their grumpy old cousins, making tracks to the lake, with all the blueberries, moss berries and a few inedible ones as far as we're concerned, they have a big dinner plate in front of them and they don't have to fight for it.  I am sure though the bigger black bears sneak onto the river somewhere, whenever given the chance and snag a few fish. 

Black bear tracks seem to be all over the trail lately, and one in particular is a cinnamon colored black bear sow with a cub.  I have followed her tracks more than a couple of times on the section of the trail above the lodge.
  
 Just a few days ago, as a group of guests and I were preparing to head up the trail from the lodge, the sow showed herself then quickly disappeared back into the trees.  We all got on our mules and started up the trail.        

   As we started up the trail I knew their was a chance she might still be close and that I was going to have to watch for her.  After only making it a few yards up the trail, the sow ran across in front of us.  She ran a few yards into the trees then stopped and turned back, not knowing what she was doing I yelled at her, and just as I did her cub ran across the trail to her.  The sow seemed to be a bit upset that we were there and she turned toward us two more times, each time she turned I yelled.  After a few seconds of confusion and checking her cub to make sure it was untouched, she disappeared back into the trees.   The guests that were close enough had a first hand look at a sow taking care to keep her cub safe; "Witnessing nature in motion."

Jake happily entertaining the guests