Bear Tales!

-Matt, Alex & Tyler after dinner in the Gull Cove Lodge

After fishing for a short while we headed back to the lodge for supper and to spend some time hanging out with everyone before hitting the sack for the night. We tied up the skiff, stowed our gear back on the big boat Yakobi, and walked up the gang plank to the lodge. As we entered through the front door, we were greeted by a nice fire in the wood stove and the enticing aroma of supper coming from the kitchen. Eddie, Matt and Paul were sitting at the oversized kitchen table while Ricky played with a toy truck and Alice busied herself drawing and coloring. Just a few feet away Tamie was putting the finishing touches on a dish that turned out to contain more than ample quantities of delectable salmon and crab meat (the real stuff; fresh...never frozen!).

We ate a wonderful meal and afterward relaxed while the 3 teenage lads played cards and laughed at fish-tales told by their new friend "Yard".
Paul told us he thought it would be a good idea to spend most of our first full day fishing for Silvers. He knew of a good spot about an hour boat ride away that he was confident would produce good results. "Ya never know for sure, but I think we've got a very good chance of catching fish tomorrow", he assured us.

-Paul surveys the weather from the lodge deck the morning of our first day

He then ran through a list of options of how we could spend the next four days; a list of things to experience while in Alaska. These activities had no doubt been a big part of Paul's life from the time he was a boy growing up there until the present day.  

The King Salmon run was all but over for this part of the state and because of that he told us we'd spend our time focussing on Silver Salmon and Dolly Vardin Trout. He said we should also be able to catch enough Halibut on our trip to fill at least a couple of 80 pound "take home boxes" with fresh caught fillets. Although the bigger Halibut were usually caught later in the season, he said we should be able to catch our fill of smaller ones. We were up for all that as well as anything else he had in mind.

-Relaxing after dinner....Tamie's kitchen in the background

I recall watching the boys out of the corner of my eye as Paul described our outdoor plans. I thought it was cool that Tyler and Matt where getting this experience; meeting new friends was a bonus. Had they not came on this trip they would have never met Alex (Yard) or the Johnson family. We've stayed in touch with the Johnson's since we first met them on this trip. Paul and Tamie have never failed to send us a Christmas card each year sporting the newest photo of their family. It's been fun watching Rick and Alice grow up in their annual Christmas photo. I'm glad we met them and look forward to one day going back to experience more "Wild Alaska With The Johnsons" (sounds like a History Channel TV show--I may be onto something here)!

-View from the Johnson boat dock

 Tamie told us what time to expect breakfast and Paul told us to be prepared for the "best pancakes we'd ever had!" I thought that sounded pretty good and with that we retired to our cabins for the evening.

Tyler hadn't been in bed very long before he was sound asleep (he'd never had any trouble sleeping as far as I knew and our first night in Gull Cove seemed to be no exception). I lay there on my side for a long time looking out at the ocean and surrounding coastline. Even at 10 o'clock in the evening it was still light enough outside for someone with relatively young eyes to read a book.

-A late July evening at Gull Cove, Alaska

As I lay there wide awake in my bed thinking about the next day, I realized it wasn't as if we were on the verge of discovering the north pole, but it still felt like an adventure. I was feeling a fair level of satisfaction for having put it together. Eddie had told me how much he appreciated being a part of this. He too realized this might be the last chance in a long time to do something like this with his oldest son.

I finally drifted off to sleep and other than one middle of the night bathroom call, slept soundly. I woke up early the following morning ready to go. After a quick shower we got dressed and walked the short distance to the lodge. 

We were eagerly greeted by just about all members of the Johnson gang, including Paul's oldest son Tim. As we ate a wonderful breakfast featuring Tamie's world famous sour dough pancakes, crab-cheese-eggs and sausage, Tim filled us in on a personal encounter he'd recently had with a big brown bear. 

One evening the previous deer season he was walking back to the lodge when to his complete surprise he walked up on an unsuspecting Brown Bear who was apparently just as surprised as Tim. As it turned out, the bear was not at all glad to see the young hunter and before Tim had time to think of a plan of action, the beer lunged and took a serious swipe at him. 

Tim instinctively threw himself backward to get out of the way and as he did he tripped and feel into a depression in the forest floor that was partially covered by a fallen tree. The bear lunged at him, growling and swiping wildly with both paws in an apparent attempt to equalize the intruder. About as quickly as the bear had attacked, it turned and walked away, likely realizing Tim was not a serious threat. He told us if it hadn't been for falling into that depression and the protection of the fallen tree, he was confident he would have been mauled by the bear...or worse. Thank God the bear didn't have cubs.

-One of several Brown Bears we saw on our 2 trips

After hearing this story I was glad I'd made the decision to arm Tyler and myself with adequate fire power. Eddie's not a gun guy and hadn't brought a fire arm or even a can of bear spray (like the stuff highly recommended by folks who don't like guns and other folks who are apparently naive about bears). I'd brought along a third handgun for Eddie to carry and offered it to him before heading out on the boat our first morning. He turned it down with a smile that conveyed he was "pretty sure we wouldn't be needing that little thing".
My good friend would find himself second guessing that decision in a couple of days. I wound up getting a huge kick out of that!  

-My good friend Eddie smiling like a possum!

Alaska Update...

I just realized I have several more pictures of our first Alaska trip that aren't in my iPhoto library. I'm in the process of getting them on an SD card and into my computer, so I can include more of them in the additional upcoming post on our Alaska adventures. Thanks for reading and tune in tomorrow for "Bear Tales"....it has bears in it!

-Tyler...looking for bears in July 2000

First Night at Gull Cove

The cabins at Gull Cove

Our cabin was approximately 16'x20' and contained two twin beds, a small couch and a bathroom. It sat back 25 yards or so from the waters edge with a spectacular view of the ocean and surrounding landscape. It was warm, comfortable and homey, and by all appearances seemed more than capable of serving it's intended purpose. The four of us settled in and a few minutes later met back at the lodge to discuss the overall game plan for the next few days. By now it was well into the evening, but thanks to the long Alaska summer days there was still quite a bit of daylight left. Paul told us we could just hang out the remainder of the evening and relax before supper or if we wanted, we could go stream fishing for salmon. Yard said he'd be glad to take us if we wanted to go. The 4 of us were pretty tired from the past 2 days of traveling and exploration, but I figured I hadn't come all this way to sit around and drink coffee. After a brief discussion, Tyler and I decided to go while Eddie and Matt stayed behind to relax and enjoy the hospitality of our mutual new friends. They were good with waiting till morning to experience their first Alaska wilderness water adventure.

Tyler in an 18' Lund Skiff pulling into the dock

We walked down to the end of the boat dock and loaded our fishing equipment into one of the two skiffs, compliments of the Lund boat company (I should point out that what Alaskans call a skiff, is known in my home state of Missouri as a V-Hull). We jumped in and were quickly headed out across the cove toward the local stream Paul had suggested  

As we bounced across the water in our small craft powered by a 25 horse Yamaha outboard, I was in awe of our surroundings. Everything was beautiful and pristine, just like I'd imagined it would be.

We hadn't been on the water more than a few minutes, still in full view of our camp, when an enormous hump back whale broke the water's surface not more than 30 or 40 yards immediately in front of our skiff. Coming up for air, it rolled the full length of it's massive body and with a last second flick of it's enormous tail, dove back down apparently to continue on with what it was doing before we'd came along. What a spectacular site! I told Tyler that if we turned around right now and went back home to Arkansas, this trip had already been worth the time, money, and effort. It was a spectacular site to experience close up. I would consider anything cool from that point on a bonus; we would have many, many bonuses!

One of the many Hump Back Whales we would see on our trip

We continued on around the point and down the rocky coastline for maybe 15 minutes or so before running our boat up on the bank and tying to one of the many available rocks. We were quick to get our lines in the water in hopes of catching fish. Tyler and I each caught our first salmon and Yard caught and released 2 or 3 himself. We fished up the stream about 50 yards or so, constantly on the look out for hungry bears. Everyone says brown bears will leave you alone when the salmon are running, but I'm just not that trusting of bears or for that matter any beast with teeth the size of fingers and claws capable of ripping the rib cage out of a 2000 pound moose. For that reason, I was armed with a .454 Casull hand gun and Tyler was packing a .44 mag for back up. I wouldn't want to have to rely on a handgun in a life threatening situation with an 800 pound brown bear, but I'd like to at least have the option. Counting on a carnivorous wild animal to "...leave you alone if the salmon are running and you keep a safe distance", seems naive to me. In my opinion, a safe distance from an Alaskan coastal brown bear....would be Bentonville, Arkansas.