Recovery Mission

Sorry it has taken me so long. We have been packed with clients. I did get to go out fishing a few times and hiking. I went Halibut fishing at the Coast several weeks back and i will have pictures of that soon.

Last week, we went on a mission to recover some of gear. One of our guides Elijah, was char fishing with clients at a place called Featherly. He was in the water helping a guest when a bear approached his backpack and gear. Long story-short...... another bear showed and then another, from all sides and in the best interest of the clients, Elijah gathered the guests and abandoned the gear to avoid the five bears surrounding them. They got out of there safe, but it is a huge penalty and fine to "lure a bear," so we had to recover the gear the next day. It was my day off..... so I got to tag along. It was me, the pilot Dave and Jerry, the owner. We flew over the area to spot it from the plane and from several hundred feet up, we could see the site.... completely shredded.

We found a mud flat, big enough to land on several miles away. We hiked through very, very thick brush and soggy tundra. If you have never hiked on tundra, let me tell you, it is not easy. It is like stepping on sponges, at varying elevations, with really high vegetation all around. It was beautiful, though. All the wild flowers are out, bright purples and hot pink, with the occasional patches of blueberries and raspberries. After about 1 1/2 hours, we got to the brush. This was the scary part. I was with Dave, who had two 12-gage shot guns and Jerry, had a pistol strapped to his chest. i kept between them. As we were crawling through, very thick bushes and trees, fallen branches and mud, it sure didn't help that Jerry kept saying, with all seriousness, "oh, my gosh... we are in bear city right now!!!! This is like the sixth street of bears!! We are walking on a bear trail, right now" Just what you want your guide and protector to say. I stuck closer to the two shot guns, but as i did, i risked getting smacked in the face by swinging branches from following too closely. Worth it! Bears are big!! Once we cleared the bear trail and brush, i had to laugh, it was pretty exciting and very comical.

After a few hours, we got to the river. I completely understand why the bears like it there. The salmon run is beautiful. You are standing in the middle of a river, only a few feet deep, in the thick of hundreds of bright red fish working their way against the current. This is the place they go to spawn, so actually when we fish there, we are looking for the Char that swim up right behind the Sockeye to catch theirs eggs. It looks like a nature checkered board. Bright red fish, all around.. And very long, grey fish behind and in between them over beautiful river rocks. It is amazing. i stood in the middle of the river and watched for a while.

We finally approached the pack. It was shredded. two patagonia rain coats, two fishing rods, a back pack and the wrappers from the food. As Jerry and Dave picked up the site, i got to stand guard with the gun and watch for bears. I pretty much just held the guns while they cleaned, but hey, i felt involved.... We actually didn't even see a bear until we were out of the brush, but Dave took my gun away, so he got to scare it off. Darn!! I got to shoot at the water later that day though...that is just as cool!

SInce we had the rest of the day, a plane and the owner with us, we flew all around to do a bit of sight seeing and scout some new rivers for fish. We made it all the way to the coast, buzzed a couple beaches with sea lions (they scatter like ants when you do that) and then landed right on the beach to eat some lunch. A beautiful day, fun and so nice to get out of the lodge for an adventure. Later that night.... Elijah got inducted into Rapids Camp Wall of Shame. A whole wall dedicated to slight mishaps: a rear view mirror from one of our wrecked trucks, some boat props, a ceramic statue of a finger, some guy lost out here and now, Elijah's bag. Oh, so fun!!