"Is this your first time in a float plane? Right on!"
Our pilot, Willy, loaded the last of our dry bags into the plane and the five of us boarded the plane to Frazer -- Me and the pilot in the front, and three in the back. A tight squeeze, but not much different than the ground planes I had taken on my village trip to Akhiok a few days prior, and to Port Lions a few weeks before that. Those flights were scenic, of course, and led us to remote places, where villagers travel around town predominately by ATV and communicate by radio. There, two of us would fly out and set up Salmon Camp for two days, get to experience the towns on our time off after work, and then fly back to prepare for camp back in Kodiak.
Each village is unique. Port Lions is the largest village I have traveled to on Kodiak island, and boasts a fishing hole and network of waterfalls, one of which is the perfect swimming hole for after-camp relaxation. Akhiok is more remote and smaller, completely coastal, and lacks the Sitka spruce trees that grow in Port Lions. After exploring these places, I had little idea what to expect while I was actually on the refuge. Not only ON the refuge, but inland, on a lake, at a bear-viewing site that hosts a species found only on the very island I'm spending my summer on: the Kodiak Brown Bear.
As our plane landed in Frazer lake, my anticipation mounted. Would I see bears during our overnight stay? Would I be unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on your experience and view) enough to run into one in the tall grass? We unloaded and walked the mile-long trail up to the quaint USFWS cabin/workshop at the viewing site. Still no bears.
We reached our destination, a tiny cabin in the meadow with no running water and a small stove and two tents surrounded by a bear fence, which lay next to a picnic table perched right above the river and viewing pad. I, at this point skeptical about seeing this Kodiak Brown Bear that everyone was talking about, began to unload the trailer with our dry bags. Everyone else congregated around the picnic table. Watching the bears, I realized.
Suffice to say, I spent many hours those two days just sitting a watching the bears catch salmon in the river. A mom and two cubs dubbed "Brangelina" for their good looks. A lonely returning sow named "Broken Ear." Some anxious sub adults pacing back and forth. Picky sows who would only eat the fattiest parts of the fish. Bratty cubs who denied their mother a bite of their fish, but ate the majority of the ones she had caught. Bears playing, bears with human mannerisms. It felt good to sleep in a tent, living simply among (save for a thin electric wire or two) these wild and intelligent creatures for a day or two. There's something renewing about getting away and being in a place with little ties to the outside world and plenty of nature to observe. I can only hope to have the chance to do so again.