Silver Salmon Creek Lodge (LJ)

Our last full day brought a spectacular sunrise, another great breakfast, and another full day of bear watching and fishing. Before we headed out, I checked out the late season Fireweed patches and the gardens.

The nice thing with SSCL, was that even though it was pretty much full up when we were there, it was always pretty calm and peaceful, and the early morning stroll around the camp area in the golden morning light as our fellow bear enthusiasts stirred was highly enjoyable.

Brian loaded us up and we headed out to the north beach and waited for the first bears of the day. It was the solo twins out first again, wandering the shoreline south to the creek. The tide was out again, so once the bears headed inland, we checked out the beach, getting some neat close-up shots of shells and sand texture (the shifting tides made some cool, unique patterns in the mud/sand.

We watched another plane land on the beach dropping new folks, taking others away, and continued to follow the bears to the creek, and this time we followed them up the creek to the creek crossing spot/fishing hole. We watched the bears frolicking in the creek, wandering the shoreline, and then playing in the big grassy field near the crossing area. The bears disappeared out sight across the field towards the creek. Then we heard some yelling in the distance and suddenly the blare of an air horn pierced quiet morning! The poor twins, scared, came running over the bank and through the field and off towards the lodge. Brian had us wait at the ATV and he headed off to talk to the folks that had scared the bears. It turns out it was a group fishing on the property next to the SSCL property and were afraid of the bears when they showed up, so they blasted the air horn. In addition to SSCL there are another half dozen or so small inholdings here that were protected as private property when Lake Clark National Park was established on either side of their property, and some of the folks (or their visitors) don’t have the same knowledge or make the same choices of how they interact with the bears.

Twins gone, we headed back out to the beach and waited to see if any other bears would show up. A lone sow, a big one, came along, walking along the break line between the beach from the south and the grass flats above.

After walking along for a bit, she took the ATV trail back to the upper creek and crossed the area we had just come from. She worked her way through the water of the creek, looking for salmon, working all the way downstream to the creek mouth. No fish…we were disappointed, but nearly as much as she was! Hungry like the bear, we headed back to the lodge for lunch. Today’s feast was hearty meat chili, with sides of onions, cheddar cheese, sour cream and saltines, along with some terrific cream puff pastries.

After lunch, we headed right back out. We spent some time above the beach, checking out a Bald eagle up in one of the trees and the grasses and driftwood scattered all along the area. Then mom and her twins appeared, and we were right back to bear watching. They worked a similar pattern, wandering south along the beach to the creek. The sow seemed unconcerned with us, doing her thing a ways off as the cubs wander closer to us at different points. The sow made a few unsuccessful runs at salmon in the creek mouth, but missed them. She turned up stream hoping for better luck – and she finally found some!

From a photo perspective, we ended up on the wrong side of the action – we were on the shade side so the photos weren’t terrific, but it was amazing to watch live! Just as entertaining was when she and her cubs decided to pop out of the water and head right towards one of the other photo groups! The guides were calm and professional and backed everyone up slowly, giving mom and her family room to move as they wanted.

She ended up catching three or four fish before tiring of the pursuit and heading off into the salt marsh flats. We made our way back to the ATVs where we had left them at the creek mouth. Along the way, we backtracked over the creek area exposed at low tide where the bears had wandered around earlier. The mud was SUPER slick – but with some careful steps, we were able to get a close look at the bear tracks in the mud, and some pretty shots of the surrounding mountains.

Tide coming in, we headed back to trade photo gear for fishing gear, and spent another couple amazing hours hooking up, losing and landing numerous Sliver salmon.

We took a break for dinner, and then with the tide still up, went back for one last round of fishing. Bugs hadn’t been an issue before, but this time they were relentless (black flies, not mosquitos), and we were glad we had long sleeves and head nets! Spectacular fishing once again, and we each kept two more salmon to take back with us.

We also received a visit from the senior bear in the area known by most as “The Old Sow”. Mark, out of respect, called her “Grandmother” instead. She was a huge sow (biggest bear we saw during our visit by far), thought to be over 20 years old. She was so big that her belly, unlike the other bears, just about scraped the ground as she walked. She came from the lodge area crossing location, got in the water, and swam her way right through our fishing hole, then climbed out of the water upstream and headed inland. As soon as she came out, Mark had us stop fishing and we watched from the cut bank, all of about 6-8 feet above, clustered together as a tight knit group until she had passed through. When we got back to the lodge, while the fish were being cleaned we asked Joanne about having a bonfire.

She set it up right away, and we spent a delightful hour and a half with three friends that were part of one of the other photo tour groups, chatting about traveling and basking in the smoky warmth of the fire as the hour grew late and the late summer twilight deepened.