Seeing bears is a requirement for a proper Alaskan trip. The first campsite in Juneau hadn’t had a bear sighting in a month. The second hadn’t had one in 5 days. We saw a grizzly fishing on the way to the third site. Since G kept reminding me that he didn’t need to be faster than the bear, just faster than the slowest person in the party (me), I sent him to get the pics. And as we were pulling into our last site, a black bear was coming out.
Working our way through a narrow fjord on the way to Juneau, the captain notifies the ship that they’ve spotted a spirit bear off the port side of the boat. Spirit bears are rare black bears with white coats due to a recessive gene. We heard through the ship grapevine that it took some documentary filmmakers 9 months to spot one spirit bear. Needless to say, the captain turned the ship around three times to get a good shot. A good start to the trip.
We enjoyed some pasta and a bottle of champagne that made it’s way into the car. I have to say that despite the wind and rain, I’m digging our new back porch (tail gate).
After a few all-nighters of packing and preparation, we made it to our 6pm ferry on August 3rd, 2012 out of Bellingham on time. We were both a little on edge from trying to fit our lives into our 4x12x7 storage unit, but it was worth it. We pitched our tent, taped it to the deck and got to enjoying the ride up to Juneau.
P.S. Thanks to Jim, Kat and George for overflow parking. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to repay you when you come to visit us 🙂
