Blog 7 – Do bears shit in the woods?

Thursday, Ketchikan & the Bear trail

2 days ago I woke with the worst sore throat I have ever had – so bad I was fighting tears swallowing . All the fist day I kept telling Sam & myself 'I'll be fine it's just a sore throat, the next day it was a bizarre cough then today, I woke with a full blown flu…it’s shit, really, as today is Bear day..it’s a trek in a forest – on a board walk high up in the trees. It’s also raining, a lot & I have no rain jacket.

Wow, today is my very favourite day!

Then we arrive at the forest only to find out that they lied! THEY LIED TO US!! The brochure said something like ummm "see bears in their natural habitat via a gentle walk along solid structures"

Noooo No NO! we get there & they are actually SUSPENSION BLOODY BRIDGES!...WELL SUDDENLY both of us are crapping our daks..but we did it & at one stage we were powering along the bridges, soaked to the bones, wringing out our clothing… me with no hands on the rails (not that my arms were long enough to reach both sides of the bridge ropes) & loving every minute!

We are very proud of us!

We saw a Mother (there were two adult females) one adult male & 4 bear cubs…The Mother was close to the cubs & at one stage was chasing a fish, caught it & was teaching one of the cubs to kill it…gruesome stuff really! I managed to take a few minutes of video .…on the way out we are both chatting away about how remarkable it was, how satisfied by this day we both were & the guide stopped to point out some bear tracks in the sand - which is honestly one of the most fantastic things I have ever seen in my life. Bear foot prints. How lucky am I?!!

Arriving at the visitor centre which finalises the few hours, we see a local artist carving by hand a huge totem pole that will be placed within the forest soon, we are up the back & can’t quite hear what the guide is saying so all we catch is "reindeer" & “dog food factory” - we share horrified glances & ask if we heard right & thankfully we missed the bit about how the centre had rescued 4 or 5 female reindeer from the dog food factory & how just around the corner we could hand fed & pet them!

Obviously I went into a reindeer frenzy..holy crap they are DIVINE I had a cuddle with one, hand fed her some lettuce & stroked her huge fluffy nose. It was just the right finish to the day .

We got back to the ship about ½ hour before it left to head back to Vancouver, had stinking hot long showers & dolled up for the last formal night of the cruise.

As I peeled off my only 'winter warmth’ pants I noticed the brown muck sticking to the saturated bottoms of them & say to Sam ‘Hey, check out this icky brown stuff stuck to the bottom of my pants’ she shows me hers’ are the same too & we agree it could very well be bear poo. Guess that answers that then!” LOL

We are loving this!

Xo Sandie


Goldilocks & the 7 bears!

Well I can finally tick ‘see bears in the wild’ off the bucket list. Bloody awesome, had a huge smile on my face all day. Woke to pouring rain & 8 degrees (so bout 3 by Adelaide standards) & knew the layers would once again be needed. Wasn’t sure if the tour would be successful but the tix said come hail or shine it goes ahead & when we met our ranger & guide, she told us the bears love the wet weather & it’s the best time to view them. The previous couple of days it had been dry & the bears uncooperative so again the holiday Gods smile on us. But we did have to go outside! 

Rugged up & with our supplied wet weather ponchos on we trekked off into the wilderness before climbing up the first of the platforms . 5 platforms in total with suspension bridges between each one that proved challenging to get across sometimes. I’m not usually worried by heights but with 3 different groups of people, rain in your face, the bridges bouncing up & down as you walk across (I seemed to be out of step with everyone else so when I went to take a step the bridge was bouncing up!) I hung on to the sides for fear of being flung over the side & becoming bear food. 

But I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else today. The area is lush & green & just couldn’t believe how close we were to the bears. The 4 cubs were just too cute, didn’t know whether to take photos or just watch them but had time to do both. Again the most amazing views everywhere you looked & the strange thing is not so many birds around as they all migrate for the winter months. Only ones we see & hear are the seagulls and big ravens that get quite close thinking you might have a crumb or two. At the end of the tour we popped into the wildlife rescue . Several reindeer, an eagle & a snowy owl later, we finished off the day along with a quick look in the shop before climbing back on the bus.

We were wet thru to the bone from the knees & elbows down but you still couldn’t wipe the smile from my face. We certainly earned our cocktails, something warming needed like rum me thinks.

Sweet dreams tonight, over & out from a very soggy but content Sammy xxx