Changing plans

We spent the day trying to rework our schedule for the Kenai Peninsula. Our original plan was to go to Katmai National Park to view bears on Wednesday. We were sign up for a walk along a beach in Katmai where the bears typically hang out this time of year. We checked the weather for Wednesday and there is a good chance for rain. So we visited the tour guides to make sure we could go. The manager initially said that they are “not made of sugar” so they operate in the rain. Then he looked at the wind forecast and said that the wind may force them to cancel. We are still waiting for the official call, but our excursion isn’t looking good. And they are sold out until mid August, which does not fit the rest of our schedule. We spent the morning coming up with alternatives.

The primary alternative will be to go to Brooks Falls with the same operator for Thursday. If you have ever seen a photo of a bear catching a salmon at a waterfall, that was probably taken at Brooks Falls. You can watch a webcam of the falls. Greg has spent many hours watching the bears on that webcam. It is the iconic spot at Katmai, but it is also very crowded, which is why we chose the beach trip. If the beach hike is canceled on Thursday, they plan to add a trip to Brooks Falls. So there are a lot of variables that we are waiting on.

While we were waiting for answers, we decided to go out on our kayaks. It was our first time using a kayak since Juneau. We launched right from our campsite in Homer Spit. The kayaking wasn’t ideal. The wind picked up and blew us off course, and the view wasn’t spectacular. Going back was nicer with the view of the mountains. We did see an eagle fishing and an adorable family of sea otters popping up near us.

After kayaking, we found a Real Fish Market. Like, one that sells fresh fish, not frozen. We were able to buy salmon that had been swimming two days ago. We also bought some spreads they make with smoked salmon and black cod.

Speaking of bears, we have not seen any since we came back to Alaska. This is most likely because we are in more crowded areas. We expect to see more later in the trip. This leads us to the question of the bear count. We asked some of our loyal readers what to do about the count. Most, though not all, wanted us to continue to count bears (we hear you, Maria!). Additionally, the consensus was that we should start counting again from zero. Phillipa explained that since we created a new map, we should start a new bear count. So if you want the total for the entire summer, just add nine, which is where we left off in June. The second question on the bear count was how to handle Katmai. (This may be moot if we can’t get there). Ari suggested that we count what we can and recruit others to help. So this leads us to:

Current bear count: 0