GRIZZLY

Monday, May 25, 2009 – Day 25 – Memorial Day in USA

Wow, I just realized when I typed in Day 25 how long that we’ve been away from home.  While we miss family and friends, we just seem to meet new ones every day.  Gary and Linda Webb, are from Boise, Idaho.  They are doing the Alaska thing like ourselves, and it sounds as if Gary is going to fish every species and sub-species of salmon found in Alaska.  We will be watching their blog when they send us their address.

It was an uneventful trip other than being questioned by a pretty, young Canadian Border Guard,  (Made the “Old Fart’s” Day!)  A moose passed in front of the truck some way down the highway and we managed to take another. “Spot the moose’s butt in this picture shot”.

We had lunch and re-fuelled in Haines Junction, YT where we intersected the Alaska Hwy again.  We had seen a rig pass the gas station as we were fuelling and wondered how he was ever going to make it to where he was going.  (This is the rig, when we passed him further down the highway.)

 

Anyway, just outside of Haines Junction there were numerous vehicles pulled over by the side of the highway and there were flashing emergency lights.  We thought that the guy had maybe lost his load as there was a motor home similar to his pulled over in the mix of vehicles.  As we got closer we noticed a bear in the field just off the highway.  Then we noticed a second one: we pulled over on the shoulder, almost beside them.

We believe that they are fairly young grizzlies, (perhaps just weaned) as bears are normally solitary animals. We found out from one of the conservation officers on the scene that these two “desperados” had been causing some trouble in Haines Junction and they were going to be “run out of town”. Two conservation officers were going to attempt to scare them back across the highway towards the Kluane National Park boundary.  Well the bears either heard them or smelled them going across the field and they weren’t going to wait around to see what happened next.  They both bounded off for the cover of the trees. The officers set off a couple of “flare cracker” shots that startled Janet and myself, but didn’t have the desired effect on one of the bears as he stopped to pose for one more picture.  In the end no one was hurt  or injured; and hopefully the bears will live long happy lives.

We made it to Burwash Landing, YT and stopped for the night.  There are a couple of Trumpeter Swans with their brood in the mostly still frozen Kluane Lake behind us.  Two of the local dogs were splashing in trying to chase them but the swans scared them off.  This was our entertainment as we ate dinner.  Sure beats watching the news.

There were a few gravel sections just east of Destruction Bay (suitable name) but other than that, the road was quite good.  Tomorrow, Back in the USA.