Back to Brooks

So lets go back in time and return to the month of May.  My last blog talked about the wonderful experience I had while surveying eagle nests. 

Once I finished the eagle disaster it off to my first week at Brooks Camp.  I was excited and anxious to see all my favorite bears; Tundra, 402 and the little cub and of course 284.  It was time to show the seasonals where they would be staying for the next four months and to go through all the necessary trainings to keep them safe for the season.  Luckily a lot of our staff were returning from last year. 

Once I landed and unloaded on the beach of Naknek Lake I took in all the beauty that I remembered from last fall.  Only this year there were quite a few changes.  For one, the mountains had a ton of snow on them.  Even Dumpling which is the lowest mountain in elevation had snow on it.  I passed snow banks on the sides of the trail to the ranger station.  Maintenance people were still trying to unfreeze water pipes to all the cabins.   But the most amazing thing was that the water levels were extremely high for spring.  The beach was all ready non-existent and the islands in the river were all ready covered with water. 

Once in the ranger station I got updated on conditions at the camp.  The valley road was closed as there was still 10 feet of snow on the road.  Unbelievable, but then we did have a lot of snow throughout the winter.  Cabins were cold and the only wildlife that had been seen so far are the bats hiding in the buildings to keep warm. 

Next on the agenda a walk to the falls.  Did I say walk?  Climb is more like it.  The visitor center weather station recorded a day in Feb.  where the winds were 90 miles an hour.  The damage from the winds was evident on the falls trail.  At least 30 trees had blown down over the trail.  In some places you could not even find the trail.  The normal 20 minute hike took me over an hour.  I climbed over and crawled under trees.  Not sure if the crew was going to clean up that mess before visitors arrived.
Once at the falls you could not miss how fast or how high the water was. 

So all day long while I explored the camp all I could think about is how are we going to get camp ready to open.  Then it was off to BL3 to unpack.  Quite a different first day at Brooks then last year and oh yah no bears!!!!!