July 11, 2019 - Windfall Harbor, Pack Creek Bears, Pleasant Bay

We headed north up Seymour Canal to head to beautiful Windfall harbor in order to plan a visit to the Pack Creek bears.  The day was 80 degrees so we were hot and the water, nice again, 70 degrees but too many jellyfish, no swimming.  Once the horse flies go away, they seem to leave around 7pm, we could enjoy being outside.

You are never to old or young for the game of life!

One of the many whales we have seen setting up for a dive

On our way into Windfall Harbor we spot 2 Orca whales, so kids are watching

Relaxing at the back of the boat

Pack Creek has an area where brown bears are habituated and 24 people can get a permit to visit each day. We had an opportunity for only one day within this current week to visit,  the US Forest Service and Alaska Fish and Game each have a ranger on site that provided us information and rules for the roaming bears. The salmon are not yet running up the creek so it was a bit quiet.  When we first arrived there was a 3 year old bear running down the spit and into the water, back out, and further away. We watched it for some time and then took a hike to a watch tower where we watched a bear eating berries. 

This bear was eating berries in the bushes

The view from the tower

Leaving the viewing tower

On our way back down the trail, a single beare was coming down the hill toward us eating berries, which was probably the highlight, we just stood there and watched.  The bears are used to humans on the existing paths so that made us much less concerned when the bear was coming toward us. 

This bear was coming right for us and then went right, we held our ground.
It came within 100' of us.

Going back to the dinghy, Adagio out there in the background

Motoring back down the Seymour Canal, we anchored in Pleasant Bay for the night. 

Girls heading out on the kayaks

Kayaking around the island out to Seymour Canal

Beautiful Pleasant Bay

There were many humpback whales breaching in the calm waters on the other side of Seymour Canal. Kathy and Steve sat on the flybridge and watched and could hear and see them breaching and breathing every minute or so for hours.  At first we thought the far away sound we heard was a gunshot but no, it is the sharp impact of the whales body crashing into the water.  The sound echoed through the canal.  The kids were watching this from the kayaks.

Can you see the whale breaching out there?  It was incredible!