McNeil Essay

Good size Brown Bear crossing McNeil river falls. The pictures in the essay are in the first comment.

 

The sow brown bear, weighing in at roughly 700 pounds was standing in the foaming icy waters of the falls of an Alaskan coastal river transfixed upon unseen motions in the water below her. Suddenly, she rapidly danced about, dipped her head in the water and came out with a 12 pound chum salmon in her jaws. The sudden motion and the new flapping of the salmon drew the attention of an even larger boar brown bear. He lunged at the sow and she took off at a sprint. She ran across a series of boulders separating various channels of the river to a game trail that led to her desired cover to hide from the boar and eat her fish in peace. The only problem, I was seated in the middle of that trail; I stood up to announce my presence to the rapidly approaching bear. By the time I made it to my feet, she was a mere 3 feet away. Traditional myth has me in a very bad place; however, a most amazing thing happened. She skidded to a stop, looked up at me with soft brown eyes and a submissive expression that seemed to suggest, “sorry to bother you”. Then she looked at my feet and slowly eased around me close enough to hear her breath. Once by me she continued her retreat into the underbrush.

 

 

Brown Bear with chum salmon comming accross the falls.

 

While this may sound like the start of a thriller of some amazing Alaskan Bear tale or that I might be the luckiest guy around, it is McNeil River in Alaska. The State of Alaska has, for over 30 years, taken up to 10 tourists a day to the falls to observe the politics of the bears at the falls jockeying for position at the best fishing locations and has never had an injury caused by a bear, according to Larry Aumiller, one of our guides at McNeil River. He did tell of some who had heart trouble and had to be flown out. From the heart rate that I encountered while face to face with that sow, I found the heart trouble part of the story easy to believe. However, at the end of our 4 days, with similar encounters happening several times a day, I came to also believe the bear part of the story.

 

 

Boar with a fish!

 

 

Subadult siblings watching the politics of the big bears on the falls.

 

While many creeks and rivers in Alaska have salmon, not many have the combination of salmon and falls that concentrate the salmon such that the bears are better enabled to catch salmon that have not spawned yet. Salmon entering fresh water cease eating and undergo changes to enable them to spawn but also signaling their death as they commence living on their stores of energy in fat and muscle rendering them less nutritious. McNeil River and Mikfik Creek flow into McNeil Lagoon, a tidal estuary, which is separated by a spit of sand from Cook Inlet. Within a mile or so of the lagoon, both drainages have a small set of falls that impede the annual migration of salmon following their own cycles to come back to the stream of their birth to mate and die. The salmon are slowed by the falls, gathering in the pools directly beneath, and are vulnerable to being caught by the bears. The run of red salmon begins in June at Mikfik Creek. As a result, June visitors to McNeil River State Park are taken to the falls of Mikfik Creek to see its spectacle of bears. However, the stream, the falls and the salmon run are all smaller; therefore, Mikfik never gets the concentration of bears that occurs in July when the red salmon run wanes and the run of chum salmon begins on McNeil River. In July, visitors are treated to the largest concentration of bears in the world fishing for spawning chums. In August, after the chums stop returning, the bears begin fishing below the falls for the spawned out chums.

 

 

My own personal McNeil experience actually started some 10 years ago when my wife convinced me to move to Fairbanks, Alaska. Once here, we started on a quest to see Alaska, which has taken us from the northern most point at Point Barrow, to the southern temperate rain forests. One place that hit her radar early was McNeil River. Unfortunately, McNeil is not a place you make reservations and go. The popularity of the place and the need to keep the groups small has led to the institution of a lottery for selection of the 180 or so people that get to go each summer. Every year, a month or so after we sent in our application we would get a letter thanking us for the $50 application fee and advising us that we did not get to go. This year, when the time came to submit our application the duty of sending in our annual contribution to the State Game and Fish department fell to me. I went directly to the dates with the lowest chance of a permit and the highest numbers of bears. After all if you win the lottery, you want to win big – right? Well, I won big and we were granted the opportunity to go to McNeil in July.

 

 

In July we were off to Homer to connect with Beluga Air, one of the charter operators flying to McNeil. Our 3:00 pm departure from Homer greeted us with blue skies, warm temperatures and no wind. The one hour and fifteen minute flight to McNeil Lagoon was wonderful: we noted two humpbacks and a pod of dolphins in Cook Inlet and then were greeted with wonderful views of Augustine Volcano. As we approached the shoreline at a distance of 10 miles or so, I could see two drainages and the one to the right had falls; as I looked closer, the falls had spots in it. Bears! Lot’s of em. The approach to land at the lagoon took us right over the falls and we could see the gravel viewing pads as well as 20 or so bears all within close proximity of the viewing pad. My excitement level was now pretty high.

 

After landing, we had to lug our gear across the spit and up to the campground, I was now glad we were limited to 75# apiece. Once we had relocated our stuff, we were given a half hour orientation on the issues of the campground at McNeil. Most instruction, of course, centered on the bears and the fact that for 30 years the staff at McNeil have been habituating the bears to the presence of humans so they know what to expect and avoid confrontation. The rule that surprised me the most was: outside the alders that make up the campground is bear territory so give the bears the right of way; inside the alders is human territory so step forward toward the bears, shout, throw rocks, do whatever it takes to convince the bear he is in human territory. We pitched our tent, stored our food and toiletries in the cook shack and went for a walk on the spit. We saw 10 bears fishing in the lagoon (at low tide the lagoon empties and McNeil River and Mikfik creek flow thru the area), and another 5 bears clamming in the mud flats. I took lots of photos with the closest bear at a range of 200 yards or so. Little did I know that the next night I would waste no frames on bears so far away.

 

Our first close bear encounter happened early the next morning, a sow and 3 cubs came into camp and were startled by a fellow visitor, who was up early. Unfortunately she spooked all 4 bears into my tent site. I quickly awoke to the sound of thundering paws, lots of woofing and barking, and my tent rapidly shaking from two bears on each side of my tent brushing it as they ran past. Needless to say, my adrenaline levels were sufficiently high that further sleep was out of the question, so I took a walk on the spit and was greeted with a wondrous sunrise with Mt. Saint Augustine Volcano in the foreground. It was pretty enough, that I was almost ready to forgive the rude awakening.

 

 

Sow and 3 large cubs that woke me by shaking the tent as they ran past.

 

 

The sunrise they got me up to see.

 

Each day about 10 am, we launched from the campground: 8 novice tourists and our Fish and Game guide for the day. It was explained that bear activity generally picks up in the afternoon, and the bears are most active from 3 pm to 10 pm, and that the actual departure is dependent on the tides. We were fortunate the tide was out so we could walk across the lagoon in the morning and then the small open boat from the campground would come back at high tide to give us a ride back across the lagoon at our return.

 

Soon it was clear we were in the realm of bears. On our first day, we saw the sow and three cubs of my morning encounter just outside the alders that line the camp. Each day as we approached the base of Mikfik creek, we saw a new form of combat fishing: in a short turn of the creek 20 bears were fishing for the dwindling red salmon run that goes into Mikfik. In fact on the second day we noted approximately 30 bears while standing in the middle of the lagoon.

 

 

Bears Fishing on Mikfik Creek

 

On the opposite side of the lagoon the trail heads to the high ground between the two drainages. On the second day we watched as a sow with 3 spring cubs went up our trail. We cautiously worked our way up the trail looking for the bears and as we got to the top of the rise we found them. However, as we watched, a boar appeared close to the sow. Our guide noted that we were standing on her only good escape path and suggested that we move a few feet off of the trail. Soon I was reminded of the sound of thundering paws and woofing as the sow and three cubs ran past us. As the bears approached, I was snapping pictures furiously, but as the bears filled my viewscreen thoughts of self preservation prevailed and I looked up from my camera. “Keep shooting!”, the guide intoned “you are safe”. So I started shooting once again.

 

 

Sow with cubs running from Boar

 

 

The cubs

 

 

Another mile on the trail in tall wildflowers and soon the air was filled with of the sound of rushing water. We came to the edge of a small canyon and got our first views of the falls with 10 or so bears fishing, and several sleeping either on the gravel viewing pad or on the trail to the pad. Each day as we slowly moved toward the pad, the bears dispersed to let us through. Then our 10 hours of uninterrupted viewing began. We had bears to the right of us, bears to the left of us, bears everywhere. In fact at the height of our best day we had 33 bears within 50 feet of our location. At one point a bear seemed interested in our packs and had walked to the rear of the pad. While it seemed silly, our guide advised that we just move a camp chair between the bear and our pack. Obviously a 1000# bear should have no trouble swatting away a 3 pound chair, but the sudden introduction of the strange object caused the bear to immediately stop its approach and back away with only a grunt for its objection. All sorts of bear activity surrounded us: feeding, fighting for choice spots, mating, playing juveniles. For me, with an interest in bears, it overwhelmed my senses.

 

 

Big Boar comming accross the falls

 

 

Confrontation over a choice fishing hole

 

 

Yes Bears even do that at the falls

 

 

They do get close enough the noise of the shutter can be an issue!

 

Then almost as soon as it would begin, our 10 hours at the pad were done and it was time to retreat back to the camp and a wonderful dinner of freeze dried stroganoff, amazing how good something so bland can taste so good when you are cold and hungry. Each day gave me a new insight to bears. The bears don’t come with bad habits; we teach them bad habits. If we are neither a threat nor a source of food, we are like the seagulls; we are there but not worth worrying about and they will conduct their business without regard to our presence. This been proven by the experiences of the last 30 years that Fish and Game employees have been taking visitors to McNeil Falls.

 

 

My wife and I at the upper viewing pad.

 

This spectacle of nature, as wondrous as it was, is a spectacle that is presently under stress, some political and some environmental. The maximum numbers of bears found at the fall just 10 years ago numbered in the 60’s while today the numbers peak in the mid to low 30’s. Lower runs of salmon are the suspected cause and research continues. Also, in the spring of 2006 the Alaska Board of Game voted to open the areas directly south of McNeil to hunting in the 2007 season in the face of an overwhelming majority of testimony and further advised that they were to consider a proposal to allow hunting within the preserve in 2007. Fortunately, a very strong public campaign directed at the Governor’s office and the Board of Game caused a reversal of the decision in 2006, so there is not to be hunting in the areas surrounding McNeil, however, the Board of Game is comprised completely by those with hunting interests in mind so they bear continued monitoring. So there is an uncertain future for the bears of McNeil River. I hope that sanity and the salmon will return and the bears will regain their number and retain their indifference to our presence, so when my next successful lottery pick occurs I will once again be overwhelmed by bears.

 

On our last day of visiting the falls, we were accompanied by a gentleman from Talkeetna, Alaska and his 16 year old daughter. Watching the bears with the infectious enthusiasm of youth only served to heighten the wonder of my own experience. I hope the we will have the wisdom to help this spectacle survive to allow the 16 year old to share the wonder of the bears of McNeil with her children in the future in the same fashion that she has now done with her father.

 

I feel obliged to say that you shouldn't try this at home with your bears. McNeil is a place where human contact has been controlled for the last 30 years and these bears have not had negative or postive contact with humans and they have been habituated to our presence. Anyone whose first encounter with bears is McNeil will not learn the distance that one should keep from bears that might see us as a threat or food and meet with an unfortnate experience.

Done