Alaska Expedition 2003

11thhead

August 11 - 12

8/11 An early morning dive on the Kathleen, some mid-day kayaking to pick up guitar strings (that were ordered and delivered by cab from Juneau), an afternoon Kathleen dive, and then a slow run down to Sweetheart Falls (at the head of Gilbert Bay near Port Snettisham) for salmon and bear watching. 

To help set our expectations, this tidbit was found in the Tuesday, August 1, 2000 edition of the Juneau Daily News:

  • Bear warning issued for popular fishing area - The fishing at Sweetheart Creek near Snettisham is reported to be quite good right now for people and bears. The Department of Fish and Game is warning people who are planning on fishing the creek that several brown bears have been seen in the area. Area Management Biologist Neal Barton says to follow basic bear etiquette. Be on the lookout and make noise when traveling through bear habitat, travel in groups, don't leave unattended food or fish on the river bank, give bears the right-of-way, and never run from a bear

We arrived at Sweetheart Creek in early early evening, and decided to take an exploratory night hike up to the falls, checking for salmon and bear activity. Yes, there was an active salmon run, and yes, there was sign of a local bear community. The salmon were obvious, as there were thousands in this small creek/river. This was a good sign, but we did not see any bears. Our next clue were all of the dead salmon on the shoreline...and not due to having spawned. These were the leftovers from an eating machine. The other clues were the 5 foot diameter areas of stomped down river grass, stomped down into a nest where these eating machines slept off the afternoon after a morning of eating tasty fishes. This was going to be good.

We hiked up to the falls, ever watchful of brown bears. Sweetheart Creek regulations allow any fishing technique except explosives. For us, it was the up-to-now-untried net fishing technique. Clinton walked up past the first level of the falls to do some exploring. At the first toss of the net, Jeff brought in several salmon. It was easy - due to the sheer number of fish, he simply could not fail to get a catch. Clinton, now up a bit further than the rest of us, peered around a corner only to see the rear of a mom brown bear heading into the woods with her two cubs.

And so begins the trip. Clinton unknowingly scares off a Grizzly mom and her cubs, Jeff catches his first 20+ allotment of salmon. This is definitely going to be good. Later that evening, the fish carnage commenced as all of the day's catch of salmon were filleted (and put into the onboard smoker) and the eggs captured as the main ingredient of a special caviar recipe for Mr. Ito and Henry.

8/12 The overcast morning and early afternoon was spent bear and salmon watching. Drysuited snorklers watched the salmon in the river, the rest of us watched the snorklers and the bears, the bears watched the snorklers and the salmon, and the snorklers got out of the river when the bears wanted to eat. We avoided the bears, the bears avoided us. It was a mutual kind of thing. Nobody got hurt, even the ones who did not understand the statement 'Stay together - Do not walk off on your own - Stay near the river'. Phil managed to find himself in the water with a brown fuzzy foot, but it was off a ways and let him calmly exit the water. Clinton also shared the 20 foot wide creek with a furry beast, and made a hasty exit to the safe side of the river. Lots of other close calls since the hooded snorklers could not always hear our polite requests for them to immediately exit the water. Good fun was had by all.

The Extraction...on the way out, the skiff came to load us up, but the tide had not come in far enough to allow the boat to get close to us. A short walk would be needed to get to the skiff. Some of us knew what would happen next: The tide was coming in, flooding the plain quickly. Those that did walk to the boat ended up in hip deep water in less than five minutes.

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