When you want to see the stars, find someplace dark
Going through the 1,200 photographs I took earlier this month from spending ten days out on the water. There is some pretty good stuff, and a lot of OK stuff. Time to assemble another video, but first I have to find a piece of music for it.
We expected to find the bears at the back of the bay, where the stream and the salmon would be.
The mission of the morning was to see bears. So we cast off lines at Tenakee and headed up Tenakee Inlet. There are several side bays along this large inlet, each with streams that attract the bears. The salmon had not quite started to move into the streams, a bit early in the season yet, but they were around. We hoped the bears would be around as well, congregating at the streams in anticipation of their yearly feast.
It was a surprise when my dad spotted this bear, we were just starting into the bay and still a mile from where we expected to find bears. As everyone grabbed binoculars we steered towards shore to get a better look.
So often the bears will run for the woods when a large white object appears. This bear just kept eating grass. A further surprise… Just as we got closer a small bear cub appeared at mother’s side. Deep water just off the rocky shore allowed us to get the boat in quite close. On occasion the mother would look up at us as we drifted in for a closer look. The array of pointing humans, binoculars and cameras were dismissed as unimportant as she continued to graze along the shore.
The cub was a handsome fellow, dark, with a collar of golden fur. He stayed close to mother, but seemed curious. We may have been the first humans he had ever seen. He watched us intently from the safety of mother’s side.
There were several bears at the stream and the grassy flats at the top end of the bay. But the shallow water would keep us from getting anywhere near with the boat. The total was nine bears that morning, including four cubs, three with the same mother. With the morning’s plan a success, we headed back to Tenakee to collect our crab traps.
A store from another time… A clapboard sided box just above the harbor. A small room with shelves crammed with everything you could need… Baking soda, potato chips, paper towels, beer and engine oil just over from fishing tackle and charcoal. The cash register is a 1920’s model ordered new from a catalog and shipped across a continent. The front window displays the work of local artists and a rack of postcards for the visitors that wander through in the summer. A hand written sign in the window warns of a bear seen in town a few nights previous. …A store from another time.
If we are anywhere near on schedule I should be in Tenakee Springs today. Tenakee is one of those places in the world that is just special. The town is quite simple, a single line of homes and a few businesses along the shore for about one mile. The center of town is found at the seaplane dock and the general store. At the far eastern end, half a mile down the shoreline, are the state docks where anyone can tie up a boat for a small nightly fee.
View Larger Map
There really are springs at Tenakee, wonderful hot springs that supply water just right for bathing. The springs are the reason why the town is located here, endless hot water available to douse the cold of an Alaskan winter. To take advantage of this water there is a public bathhouse constructed over the main spring. Male and female bathing is handled by alternating hours of access. Sitting in the bath and enjoying the water one evening I was talking to one of the local guys, he made the comment of having “seen half the town naked, the wrong half!”
Tenakee Springs is a place where man lives, but nature rules. Stray very far out of town and you quickly enter wilderness. This remains the only place I have had a close encounter with a grizzly bear, way too close, just a 100yards from the state marina while on the beach. There is a great story there, one I will save for another time.
The general store is a place that would not have been out of place in most towns of the American west back in the 1930′ or 1940’s. A clapboard building found right in the center of town on the waterfront, right next to the float plane dock and the helipad. A single large room with a small selection of all the necessities. One wall serves as a gift shop and gallery for local artists, selling watercolors and other artwork to those of us who are just visiting.
Looking forward to returning here, taking a bath in the hot spring, and generally enjoying a bit of rural Alaska.
