Into Alaska - Alaska and Points North: Tips and Tales from the Road - page 107

was HER retirement trip. But when they arrived at Cooper Landing her husband was so
enthralled with the fishing he refused to move. At that point they'd been there for 8 weeks
and they'd been back to Anchorage for a full-sized freezer to accommodate the fish he'd
caught. It was sitting in the lounge of their oversized 5 th wheel, fed off a gas generator. I
reckon they will be eating Alaska salmon till they die.
We camped there, intending to take the 2.5 mile hike out to Russian River Falls where there
is a good vantage point for watching the grizzlies fish in the river. Unfortunately, when we
woke up that morning the rain was so heavy we decided to scrap the hike.
But there were lots of fishermen in the campground to tell us their tales of grizzlies basic-
ally confronting them for the fish they'd caught. Many of them carry big guns, but those
are used as a last resort. It's generally understood that when a grizzly has decided he'll fish
where you are fishing, YOU move. Even big guns are only as effective as your aim which
must be precise to stop a grizzly. And you do NOT want to wound a charging grizzly.
The stories plus all the posters stuck up all over the campground warning us about the pres-
ence of bears had me paranoid. Even the outhouse had a poster nailed to the door so that
when you took your seat, you could not miss it. Head swivelling in all directions, I took
to whistling as I walked, hoping it was true that the bears were less interested in meeting
me than I was in meeting them. This seemed to prove true because I never actually saw a
grizzly in a campground myself.