An amazing visit to Kodiak Island

I just returned from a most memorable trip to an island best known for the largest grizzlies on the planet. I was treated to riding in the front of the helicopter flying from Kodiak to the Ayakulik River on the western side of the island. Here is an aerial shot of my first glimpses of the giant bears on the Connecticut River higher up on the island. They have been geographically isolated and have formed their own subspecies.







This was a again shot from the helicopter as we descended down the Ayakulik River to where the lodge sits at the mouth of the river.










We spent the week fly fishing and caught our fill of beautiful Silver (Coho) Salmon making their run up the river. The runs were running late this year. Even though it was by far the best fishing I've ever had it was far from hitting the run at its peak. The fish were striking flies and fighting hard on the fly rods.






I had an excellent guide in my partner Paul. He has been fly fishing this river for 15 consecutive years and knows it like the back of his hand. We all had ear-to-ear grins fighting the acrobatic and feisty Silvers.









Fortunately for us, the bears were well fed and were reasonably accommodating to allow us to share the river with them. Dave and Mike continued to fish although they were surrounded by bears below the weir.








We trekked up and down the river to find the salmon and explore the ever changing holes. We followed the bear trails through the meadows blanketed with fire weed.










Mama bear Kim and her two cubs are known well around camp. She is a dominant 4 or 5 year old who spends her time down by the mouth of the river with her cubs away from the aggressive boars (males) upriver. In retrospect I'm not sure it was such a good idea to be so close to get these shots. I do remember my heart racing as she gave me those menacing looks as I eyed those gigantic paws lined with bloody four inch claws.




She made our fishing techniques look highly inefficient as she quickly pulled one after another of chrome bright fat salmon out of the bend in the river.










There were several pyromaniacs on the trip and one in particular who is very mechanically inclined built this cannon for the trip. He actually made it to launch some fishing gear from shore to try to catch halibut in the deeper water (or so he claims). Here he lined up a buoy painted like a kitty at point blank range. I think he just wanted to blow $%*^ up.

It took a few trials but we finally got the sighting figured out and nailed him right in the kisser.

He even figured out novel ways of splitting wood with gun powder.

A long tradition on the river is playing butt darts where everybody tries to hold a quarter between their cheeks, walk across the room, and deliver a perfectly aimed shot into a cup (that gets progressively smaller in later rounds). Marv Enfield demonstrates the proper technique refined over the years.

The place was so magical that it had easily the most scenic view I've every seen from an outhouse. On the right was one that sat on the top of a bluff overlooking the mouth of the river where the bears would constantly be fishing.