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!