Chuck and Karlyn have talked about Anan Creek so many times, telling us how you can watch the bears fish for salmon that are trying to make their way upstream to spawn. Alas, the forestry service now has a booking service and only allows 60 people to go up a day. We were to late – but, the ranger said that if we called in the morning we might be able to get in.
We thought at first we would move on, but then Chuck and Tim decided that we would stay in Berg Bay for the night; we just back-tracked a bit.
It was a lovely spot.
We tucked into a little cove and spent the night.
We left at 7 so as to be near Anan Creek, which opens at 8, to see if we could get in. Yes!
We were not disappointed
We watched for 2.5 hours – the bears would locate small pools where some salmon were resting after climbing up some of the falls and preparing for the next step, and just reach in and grab a fish. They ate the head and the roe first. One bear was so picky that he only went for the stomach, hopefully roe and the fat. He then let the fish float away. Another only wanted the head. There were so many fillets of fish left on rocks; but what was left was not going to add to the bulk that they needed for the winter.
We went on to Myers Chuck, one of our favorite spots. I was glad that we could revisit it.
A young local fisherman, Sterling, came by and we bought fresh halibut at $6 a pound. We also bought some of his smoked fish! Yummy!