Alaska Day 17: Tutka Bay Lodge

 

Bear #1, Ms Erratic, just the other side of the plane where THB is cowering (with camera in shaky hand)

Day 17: Tutka Bay Lodge

Weather Report:  Foggy at the airport, nice to very nice elsewhere

Quote of the Day:  I told you to stay close!

It’s a Covid world: No masks required in the close quarters of the airplane though we have no idea if the other couple has been vaccinated

Up to the lodge for THB’s best breakfast of the trip: yogurt with good fruit and granola; some sort of egg and mushroom and pesto scramble; fried bread and crème fraiche topped with homemade lox; poppy seed cake (one piece saved for  our lunch); more stuff…pickled veggie, chilies, etc.

Breakfast, in part

Chickens on the loose

Breakfast was an hour earlier than normal because THB and DB are headed to see the bears in Katmai NP (#43? #51?)  via small plane. During our meal one of the staff comes over to tell us there is fog at the Homer airport and we might be delayed or cancelled. Too early to tell.

We pick up an extra backpack and two lunches and head to the dock. Captain Mike is taking us to the airport in a small boat. Water is like glass, and there is fog  on the water in places that drops visibility to maybe 20-40 feet. It is clear near the airport where Mike parks the boat. We transfer to a large SUV and Mike shuttles us the last 10 minutes and comes in with us to make sure we’re going to take off.

Zinc "devices" are attached to bottom of boats that have iron hulls or devices to soak up the rust so ther hull doesn't rust out. After the zinc device is all rusted up, it has to be disposed of and here is just the receptible for the job

Mike and the check-in staff (a high schooler) chat with another woman who is going with us. She used to work at the lodge and is the flight photographer, K. Later, we wonder if K and Pilot Z are partners. THB and DB put on waders, connected by looping the top fastener around our belts.

Right at 9, Pilot Z, a man of few words, shows up and immediately shepherds us and one other couple to the plane out back. We’re taking off right now! There’s a brief and barely intelligible (to THB) safey talk and maybe even how to fly the plane if anything goes wrong. Or was it where to push the alarm button? How to make sure the side door is closed?

THB thinks Z said this was a Cessna from way back

THB and DB are in the last row! It’s not easy for the big guy of the other couple to squeeze into his seat behind Z.  He’s big and clearly has not been attending the daily 7:30 stretch class (no, he was not on the cruise). Somehow, he contorts himself into his seat, we all buckle up and off we go.

Pics from the plane:

We have no idea of the route or where we’re going other than watching the GPS on the dashboard. Now that THB is an experienced small plane passenger, he guesses we are flying in clear skies at about 3-5,000 feet mostly over water. Since he is wearing ear plugs instead of headphones, he can’t hear the usual announcements. There is no drink service, nor barf bags on the seat in front of THB.

The runway

We pass one pretty spectacular volcano. DB thinks on the way back it is spouting steam. Fortunately, on the way out, THB’s hands were shaking a bit while he took pics and with his poor vision, he wasn’t sure if it was even a volcano, dormant or active.

 

As we arrive at our viewing site (THB has no idea if this is the viewing site, he missed that announcement as well), Z brings down the plane to a lower altitude (maybe 1,000 feet? 500 feet? THB definitely knows we haven’t hit land) and turns the plane in a Z two or three times (skywriting?) while Z and the photographer stare intently out their side windows.

 

Are they looking for something? Other small planes that crash-landed? A runway?  All THB sees are his own white knuckles. Gripping his flotation device. Turns out the Z’s have a special intent: they are looking for bears. As we are coming in for a landing THB suddenly remembers: THE PONTOONS ARE BACK AT THE AIRPORT!

 

No problema, we are landing on the beach. THE BEACH???!!!! Yes, Pilot X has done this trip to Katmai NP many times. The flight takes a bit over an hour. The Visitors Center if further from where we land than from Homer to here. No stamp or sticker for THB today. Most of the tours go to Lake Clark NP because that flight from Homer is only a half hour.

Z is loading up: binocs, pistol...PISTOL?

In other words, that means we have the place to ourselves. Not exactly. As we get out of the plane (not easy for big guy), and as Z straps on a gun (even before his binoculars), we are joined by Bear #1. She’s not just any bear, she’s an erratic bear. Before THB can focus his camera, Z has moved a few steps and grabs big guy’s wife and yanked her back into our small circle while growling “I told you to stay close”…she’s maybe 4 feet away.

Bear #1, Ms. Erratic

Bear #1 proceeds to circle the plane twice. The first time is a close encounter. Why aren’t we back in the plane? Why hasn’t Z pulled out his giant hand gun? These are actually questions THB asks himself much later. Right at this moment he is making sure Z is between him and Bear #1. Did the bear lose her cub? It is hard to read inside a bear’s mind, that’s for sure, while also trying to grasp why taking a picture in THB’s mind is really important.

 

At this point, it is a lot easier to just show the followers lots of bear pics.

 

Bear #1

Starting first lap around THB and the plane

Starting Lap #2

Time to abandon ship and head to the meadow

Bear #2 (meadow shots first)

Two questions: are black bears color blind and is the big guy close enough to the group?

Around 50 yards away and so not erratic

Does a bear shit in the meadow

THB decides not to invesitgate

But why.....why was THB selected to investigate????????????

Bears #3, #4 and #5

One mom and identical twins…who knew!! Ed. note: THB is making this up, as usual. He has no clue what relationship these cubs are to each other.

All three bears are clamming

These two identical cubs are in the midst of sharing a dipped ice cream cone

One cub has found nursing is a better option for nourishment than clamming 

\

Refill please

Lunch on the beach, eating over our lunch bags so as to not leave even crumbs in the sand. Ham and cheese sandwich, tangerine, cc cookie, something really dry made of birdseed, lots and lots of water. Z tells us that the airport was closed just after we took off. No in and outs of Homer for a few hours.

Ed. note: It only takes super-smart THB about a half hour to realize that might mean we are left all alone in this part of Katmai NP with at least one erratic bear and only one handgun and (at least) one partially eaten lunch….that might attract erratic bears.

Brownish pink lichen

Huge bear paw

Waders

 

Up and at ‘em, looking for fossils (and hopefully not closely encountering Bear #1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). Big guy does his 30 second dance to get in place, Z walks the beach, holding is finger in the air, and after we’re all aboard (THB again does not get a head set) turns the plane around and taxis to the head of the runway (er, the end of the beach), whips into a turn and we’re back up in the air, make a U-turn, and land in Homer about an hour later. DB uses her watch to figure out THB and DB did 4 miles of slogging through meadows, shallow water and beach walking. Ed. note: THB and DB definitely feel it the next day.

More pics from the ride back to Homer:

Homer

 

Total: $695pp and a tip for Z

Rika is there in a flash and we spend a few hours with her and hubbie J catching up on life in Homer. They have a great art collection by Alaskan artists, we see the latest pieces Rika has made or has under construction, sit on the back deck chatting (it hardly seems possible, THB is taking their unbelievably beautiful view of water and snow-capped mountains for granted by then) and sharing snacks, and time flies and it is off to meet Captain Mike at the dock.

No Mike, he’s is arriving with another couple that had been visiting the lodge for the day. Ride back is bumpy. Mike tells us that his return trip to the lodge in the morning was even foggier than our trip to the airport.

Dinner is bizarre: we have one more guest, a 7-year-old boy, dining with the father/daughter couple. He must be related to the owners/workers and met the daughter on a prior trip. They are up and out of their seats often. That’s a mild distraction: the folks from last night are at other end and so loud THB requests we eat outside tomorrow night.

Pop into the hot tub.  Appetizers at 6:30 include oysters. THB had requested them the day before and here they are: best on the trip, as good as oysters can be.

 

The food is very good though two of the courses (risotto and pasta dishes) are so rich THB and DB only eat half or so of each. Dessert by the youngest pastry chef ever (K from the flight knows her and lets THB know she is nowhere near that young) is terrific: light crepes served like a wrap with mild basil (not a typo) ice cream.

Pic of the menu:

 

Along with the pics, THB comes back with a number of mosquito bites on the back of his neck. They must have snuck under his swoop.