They were cracking sticks in the woods below us and then we headed to a hide where we could safely see if they had left our vicinity – thankfully they had and were walking along the river edge. We didn’t want to lose sight of them, sometimes bears will just stop and take a nap so we wearily wanted to make sure they left the area. Luckily we were close to our van so we got there and then saw the bear AND cub (the same ones we saw about 5km away in the morning) veer down the steep hill. We backed away and Craig had the bear spray at the ready. I didn’t quite hear what he said so I just replied with an abrupt “WHAT?” and he said “there’s a bear coming towards us” while backing right into me. We left for a little while and dunked in the river to cool off and then we popped back, carrying our chairs down the trail when Craig suddenly stopped and said something about a bear. When we got back to Ruby we actually thought the vantage area above the river was a lovely place to sit and observe so that’s what we did for an hour or so but to no avail. There were taller mountains in the other direction which were pointy and sharp with glaciers clinging onto them. They had rounded tops but sheer edges, like they were hacked in half with a bread knife. The forest totally blocks the view when driving along the road and now we could see the dramatic mountains. As we approached a fancy lodge the view behind us completely opened up and it was pretty phenomenal. After that excitement we headed to a different area for a short hike high up along the river bank. It was great news – the fish might not of arrived yet but at least there were some grizzlies in the area. Luckily the current swirled the cub onto a gravel bank where it waddled onto the shore, shook off its fur and ran back to mum, jumping into the river again like it was just a fun game. We watched in panic as the mum had her back to the cub and seemed more interested in searching for fish than its child’s safety. The cub followed it’s mum into the river but the current rapidly swept it away. The cub was incredibly cute, a complete fluff-ball with a silver face and dark patches around its eyes which made it look like a baby panda. We did have some good news though, Craig went to the pit-loo and on his way back he spotted a bear!! It was a sow with her cub and they were heading into the river.
#GRIZZLY ADVENTURE HACKED FULL#
The river should be full of salmon already and the water was clear enough to see there was barely a single fish swimming through it.
We knew the salmon were spawning back down the valley but it seemed like that was coming to an end anyway so we really wanted a fresh run to arrive for the bears. There was a viewing platform specifically designed for bear watching with electric fencing and a ranger on duty but that wasn’t open for another week so we pulled up at one of the very limited areas along the Atnarko River and wondered what we should do. It wasn’t the salmon we came to see though, it was the bears, but without the salmon our chances of seeing grizzlies seemed pretty low. The fisheries said it wasn’t looking like a good year – a big flood a few years back flushed all the roe away which has been pretty catastrophic to the salmon population. Some people said helicopters had seen huge schools out at sea and predicted their arrival in 10 days with an average swimming speed of 14kmh. Sadly the pinks were late this year and rumours of their whereabouts was spreading through the valley like an STD in a brothel. Their favourite is said to be chinook which can weigh up to 45kg, but when thousands upon thousands of pink salmon fill the rivers that’s what really gets the bears to the rivers and it becomes quantity over quality (but with the hope of the odd chinook for good measure). Grizzlies can be a little fussy with what salmon they choose to eat, a bit like humans.
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