A Long Day Where Almost Nothing Happened

Yesterday I was the lone bear manager. It is hard to be a bear manager with out bears to manage. Every few hours I walked around camp talking to people. About a 1/2 mile from camp is the mouth of the Brooks River. There is a floating bridge you can cross to get to the other side as long as there is not a bear within 50 yards of the bridge. On the other side of the bridge is a large platform where you can safely view the bears. There is a ranger stationed at the entrance of the brdige and another ranger on the platform. They keep visitors safe from the roaming bears. So every couple of hours I went on patrol and stopped to visit with the rangers. As the salmon are not running yet and the bears haven't returned in their huge numbers, they were just as bored as I was. They have to stand at their post for two hours when they are relieved and replaced with a new ranger. Each ranger has a different way to pass the day. The first ranger I talked with said she was bird watching and said she figured out why mergansers have the tuff of feathers behind their head. It was so that the male had something to hang on to while he mated with the female who was pushed her under the water numerous times. Ranger two told me she had sung every scottish tune she had learned as a kid. Ranger three and the ranger on the platform played hide and seek with their binoculars. The Last Ranger I talked to said he had learned the rules of fishing in the river by an angry angler who had his space violated by another fisherman. Such was the excitement of the day.

On the walk home after my shift the most exciting thing I saw was two three-toed woodpeckers fighting with each other on the ground. Feathers were flying and the woodpeckers were rolling around on the ground. After dinner I decided to go for a walk to the falls to see if their was any action there. I spent about an hour and just enjoyed the scenery but no wildlife. On the walk back I saw the largest wolf I had ever seen. It was a tan and white male and it was huge. It was 25 yards away from me. He was bigger than anything I had ever seen so I wasn't focused on taking a picture. He looked at me for about 30 seconds than moved across the road and into the woods on the other side. Alaska has not let me down yet.