Another option for viewing the Brooks Falls Brown Bears is to click the link below that takes you to the explore.org website. They run a live feed with several camera options 24/7.
This will get your attention...make sure you have volume turned up because you can actually hear this bear because the guy with the camera is so close.
This bear is well known at Brooks Falls and goes by the name of "747"..yep, named after the wide body jet, a 747..! I believe the encounter happened about 1 year ago.
A friend of mine who I worked with for number of years owned a log cabin not far from Brooks Falls.
It was near the north end of the Iliamna Lake. I stayed in that cabin for two weeks at a time four different times.
Bears were thick. Every morning going to the oddhouse you would see fresh tracks from the night around the cabin.
If you drifted down the river next to the cabin near dusk(summer around 11pm). You might see 20 or more bears. I have been way closer than I wanted to be on two occasions.
It is a unique feeling to be walking around in a place like that. Your mind is on high alert at all times. The bush can be so thick you could be ten feet away from a bear and never see him. The thing that gives them away is their smell. They reek.
I have looked at tracks where a bear stepped on a dead salmon and maggots were on his tracks. You could see bear trails that were like tunnels used over 1000's of years. I would be standing in a river fiy fishing there and would be looking around all the time. The hair on your neck would stand up. Creepy but exciting.
Bone...what an experience that would be, living among Brown Bears for a couple of weeks. Hopefully the Bears were willing to share some of their favorite fishing spots and you were able to come home loaded with salmon...
I met this couple at a business meeting. We worked for the same national company. They owned a telecommunications company in Anchorage. So me and a buddy are talking to them and they tell us that they own a cabin in a remote area. They told us that they have invited people in the past to come visit and nobody came. My buddy Dan and I are really into fly fishing. We had gone to Montana on trips together. This couple invites us at this meeting in Feb. We went there in July.
From Feb till when we left for Alaska all we did was plan for that trip. We read books. We went to shooting ranges. We bought gear. We watched film. By the time we got there we were so jacked it was nuts. Three of us were at the cabin. We had use of a jet boat. First day out we were gone for like 10 hours. Come back to the cabin. We look and see some trash near the front of the cabin. We had brought 2 weeks worth of food in coolers that we had flown in on a float plane. The trash in front was some of our stuff. We look at each other drop our rods and gear and out come the 357 and the 45. We knew a bear had gotten in the cabin.
Go in no bear. The cabin is trashed. The cooler had teeth marks in it. Dan's suitcase was open and the bear had left a print on his underware.
We cleaned up didn't lose to much. Rodger the owner shot the bear a week after we left. It was a black bear. Once they break in. They will come back. Brown bears were all over.
I went back there three more times. Lots of bear stories.
One of the highlights of my life were the trips there. Really cool experience.
Bone...instead of reading books about planning a fishing trip in AK, maybe now you should be writing your own book about the do'es and don't of enjoying a 2 week fishing vacation in bear country. ...first order of business..make sure your cabin is bear proofed..
I can't imagine how I would feel about returning from my first fishing trip to find the cabin ransacked by a bear. It might take a good amount of 'Jack' to help me get a decent nights sleep from that moment on..!
I got on a plane in Atlanta. Then a plane from Seattle. Then a small plane from Anchorage. Then a boat ride across a large lake. Then quiet. All of that engine noise ends. We have access to a truck that long ago was barged in. A dirt road that goes only so far and ends. Then there is the cabin on a high bank above a river.
It takes awhile for your mind to shut down. When it does you begin to think wow this is extreme remote. If something goes wrong to bad. It may take many days to get out of here. It does not take long to know you are in bear land. Bear tracks the size of dinner plates and bear crap is everywhere.
All pacific salmon die after spawning. The smell of rotting salmon is in the air. Bear trails all along the river banks.
I don't fear bears. They are just being bears. Doing what bears do to survive. It has to be a bad situation in order to get attacked. Getting between a sow and cubs (Revenant bear scene). Or, a bear has a stored kill and you come upon it and they are near with the intent to protect it. Mostly you make a lot a noise and they move away before you see them.
However, you don't go anywhere and not be conscious or your surroundings. You stay on alert. You slow down and see the beauty around you. You are not afraid just aware.
My brother in law and I bought a cabin in the smokies last year... we've caught several bears on our cameras but haven't seen one in person... finally saw my first bear in person on a hike this year!!! so excited!!! They are amazing creatures!
My brother in law and I bought a cabin in the smokies last year... we've caught several bears on our cameras but haven't seen one in person... finally saw my first bear in person on a hike this year!!! so excited!!! They are amazing creatures!
If you ever make it back there, just drive the Cades Cove loop a couple times. You'll see lots of bears.
And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. - John Muir
Two years ago I moved back to Atlanta from Reno. Lived in the Reno area for five years.
The one house was close to the foothills of the Sierra's near the road that went to lake Tahoe. We had a small fenced in backyard. The fence was all wood with a top 2x4 ledge. One morning there was a black bear in the backyard. He was tagged. I could tell he was an adolescent. A ranger was crusing the neighborhood. He was alerted by telephone calls.
I have had many bear experiences. Love bears. Watch shows about them. Really cool animals. Black bears by nature are timid.
The bear in the backyard. I open the door and just said "get." It is amazing how agile they are for being big animals. He jumped up on top the fence. Walked along the top on the 2x4 and then dropped down into the neighbors yard. Nevada is sparcely populated. The black bear population is not large about 500 or so mostly in the Sierras along the California border. The mountain lion population is large over 3000.
Lions are very secretive and mostly nocturnal. They avoid people. They live in high ground and are ambush predators. They are deer killers.
I saw one. One time. I have heard them and seen their tracks. They rarely attack humans but it happens. Again it is some weird circumstance. A mountain biker stimulates an attack response. If they jump you. Mostly likely you will not survive.
Bears typically will not kill you. There are different responses a human should make when they come across bears. Black bears you can scare off. It all depends on the circumstance and the bear type. Sometimes you stand your ground and stand tall. Let them know you are there. Brown bears. If they get you. Play dead and cover head and neck and hope they let you go.
Almost all bear encounters they hear you, smell you, and move off. Bears (black and brown) don't hunt people. Polar bears will hunt a human. They will kill and eat you. The good thing is they are far away from people.
I really love bear country. I have gone fly fishing all over bear habitat. Alaska though is different. There are a lot of bears in Alaska. You can live with them but you have to aware and protect yourself.
My brother in law and I bought a cabin in the smokies last year... we've caught several bears on our cameras but haven't seen one in person... finally saw my first bear in person on a hike this year!!! so excited!!! They are amazing creatures!
If you ever make it back there, just drive the Cades Cove loop a couple times. You'll see lots of bears.
we were planning on it this past trip but decided to pass to get back to my parents... we own a cabin in the smokies with my sister so will definitely be back
Hoping to do cades cove next trip up there... They have no car Wednesdays that I think would be fun to do a walk or bike ride during...
bone and jay...I envy both of you ..having a cabin for a retreat from civilization.
It's my favorite place currently..... I hope to eventually buy a place on the beach as my wife and I love the ocean... but I LOVE being at our cabin... it's amazingly quiet... I love sitting on the porch in the morning and only hearing the wind and the birds...
