Just another Friday night in Juneau...with the bears!

Just another Friday night in Juneau...with the bears!

There's this spot near the glacier, a pretty viewing area with some fenced in paths along a stream.  It's where we've seen sockeye salmon swimming upstream and spawning.  The area is plastered with signs about high levels of bear activity.  The first time we visited I was quite nervous.  The times we've been back, the area is so full of tourists from the cruise ships that I figure there's no way any bears are coming near this place.

Well, some friends we've made, who also have kids our girls' ages, were telling us that dusk is the time the bears really come out.  And that because the area does have a lot of people, the bears are used to people observing them.  As long as you use all your "bear common sense," it's a great place to see them.

So Friday night the rain stopped.  If for no other reason than as an excuse to get us all out of the house for some much needed fresh air, Grandma Sherry, the girls and I got into the car and went to Steep Creek.  I knew there was a chance of seeing a bear but figured it was remote.  Turns out, wasn't so remote.

Just out having a little late night salmon dinner.  As you can see, the bear is walking through and down the stream.  That's how I figured we'd see a bear.  From a comfortable distance, as the bear did his thing, ate his salmon.  Funny thing was, as we were walking out that night, I had noticed another part of a sign on the trail that talked about what to do in the event a bear appeared under one of the trail platforms.  Again, being naive, thought this was in the rare instance you happened to be walking and come across a bear that is underneath one of the bridges.

Nope.  Wrong again.  Bears come right up to the bridges.

That's the bear, munching on his catch.  Right underneath us.  That's Addy's rain boot and Cora's tennis shoe in the picture.  We can hear the crunching of bones and smell the actually not-so-pleasant aroma of freshly "filleted" spawning salmon.  

Every once in a while the bear would just look up at the people, which including us had amassed to a crowd of about 20, as if we were the spectacle.  Everyone's nervously chatting in hushed tones.  Loud enough so the bear still knows we're here, as all the signs instruct us to do, but not so loud that we risk scaring him away.

And then, just as quickly as he came, he was done.  Off to another spot.  Which happened to be in the direction of the parking lot, so we gave him a nice big headstart.