After boondocking in the Sam’s Club parking lot we were up at 4AM to arrive at the PenAir terminal for our flight to Brooks Falls. It was wonderful, no security, no baggage check, just a plane ride to King Salmon AK. After arriving at King Salmon we took a bus to the float plane dock. While waiting for the plane to get ready we spent some quality time swatting mosquitoes and flies…monsters. Before they would let us board each one of us had to step on the scales for a weight check…some of the ladies didn’t want to get on the scales…imagine that! So, after weighing in, it was time to board, each person was placed on the plane according to weight, and away we went. Val’s cousin had offered to ship a box of Depends for Val and I, but it was totally unnecessary, it was a great flight. After arriving at Brooks Lodge and taking a Bear Awareness Class and receiving our certification pin, it was off to view the bears. After a one mile walk from the lodge and going through some security gates and a floating bridge we arrived at the elevated viewing platform. After waiting for 4 hours for a bear to make an appearance we were really getting disappointed. We had expected to see many bears because it is one of the best bear viewing areas in Alaska, but the Salmon run was early this year. Finally someone on the platform shouted “I see something” and sure enough a large brown bear descending to the river to fish. It was the only one to appear but it made it worthwhile to get a few pictures of this bear.
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