{"id":25856,"date":"2026-08-25T22:39:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T02:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/?p=25856"},"modified":"2026-08-26T00:54:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T04:54:01","slug":"alaskan-big-bear-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/index.php\/2026\/08\/25\/alaskan-big-bear-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaskan Big Bear Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"
Position: 58\u00b033’17.7″N 155\u00b047’28.0″W<\/a><\/h6>\n

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The morning of our big bear adventure rose sunny, cool and calm. Carol, on a mission to experience as much of Alaska as money would allow, had booked us a couple of seats on a Bald Mountain Air Service<\/a> flight to Katmai National Park<\/a> to watch the bears catch salmon. Watching the National Park Service\u2019s bearcam<\/a><\/u> gives you a sense of the action. If you\u2019re a gambler, you can follow Fat Bear Week<\/a> and find out which bears<\/a> are in the running this year. Armed with that knowledge, you can then blow your life savings by betting on one of the many prediction markets<\/a> that manage the odds for punters. For our part, we just wanted to see wild bears as closely as possible without getting eaten.<\/p>\n

On the dock, the pilot, Gary, asked me if I wanted to sit in the copilot seat. I jumped at the chance, knowing Carol would be envious. I made a mental note to make sure she sat up front for the return leg. Our fellow passengers included two Czech couples who we thought sounded Russian. But what did we know?<\/p>\n

Flying Otters<\/h6>\n

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When it\u2019s on the water, a float plane is a little like a boat. Mooring lines need cleating and uncleating and an anchor is useful when there\u2019s no dock to tie off to. Our runway was a lake parallel to Homer\u2019s tarmacked airport. After a short taxi we turned and accelerated. Within a few hundred yards we were airborne. The unpressurized DHC-3 Otter<\/a> was very loud and noisy and headphones are a necessity for communicating. By the time we reached 12,000 feet in altitude the cabin temperature had dropped significantly, but we could see along the Cook Inlet all the way up to Anchorage.<\/p>\n

Sitting in the co-pilot\u2019s seat I decided Gary was probably a couple of years older than me; and probably just a couple of years older than the plane. Looking up any airplane\u2019s history just requires knowing its tail number. N413JP<\/a> was riveted together by de Havilland Canada in 1958. Bright orange with red lettering, the plane had been repainted in the past five years. I looked up what a 70-year-old de Havilland Otter goes for. I was surprised. A decent one costs around $1.5 – $1.7 million. Originally, they cost about $140,000. That\u2019s about $1.4 – $1.5 million today. 0% depreciation over the past 68 years is a good deal. DHC-3 Otters are solidly built and, when well-maintained, the airframe should last forever.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Feed the Bears<\/h6>\n

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Brooks Falls<\/a> is the only place in the world that the typically solitary coastal brown bears come together. But when the salmon come in droves and there\u2019s enough for all, you can afford to cozy up. As a result of all the bearnomie, the bears are also much more chill around humans. In Denali we were warned to keep 275m from the bears, at Brooks Falls the safe distance was deemed only 50m. The young ranger admonished us not to apply that rule anywhere else in the world. A naturally well-fed bear is a happy bear. Bears fed by humans generally wind-up dead. Something in human food instantly turns them into sociopaths and they have to be put down. Sad but true.<\/p>\n

A few bear facts (from the NPS):<\/p>\n