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.