2012 July 6-20 Alaska Land and Cruise Adventure Review with LOTS of photos!

[WalleyeLJ]

After another break of 30 minutes or so, our pretty female came back out for another shot, determined to not give up!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Missed again...

 

Bears 0, Salmon 3!

 

 

 

What's a bear to do?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, despite the lack of success, our bear had a particular sense of determination, that was obvious. What could possibly keep our bear making trip after trip to try and get one of those wily salmon???

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Baby bears!!! Our female had a pair of twins that followed her out for this trip, waiting patiently while she make her attack run, and then following along beside her afterwards as she weighed her options...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left, right, left, right...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watch your step...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming mom!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey, whatcha got there???

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lemme look!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Mom, whatcha doing over there?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey look - people!

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's mom doing?

 

I don't know, I'll take a look!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dang gravity...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now what do we do?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for the next chapter in the story of Wolverine Creek!

 

 

L.J.

[LEtue]

The captions are hilarious! We just need sound so you can put voices to each of them :D

 

I just love all of your pictures!!!!

[ISLABONITA]

Awesome..photos.. great captions too! Hope we get so lucky leaving in a few days!

[sue402001]

After a bit of a break watching the fishing action, we had another Brown bear appear - a female, but bigger than the young male that had visited earlier. Like the male, she made her way to the water pretty quickly, and pounced on the pool of fish in a flurry of splashing white water...

 

 

Rats...no luck!!!

 

Back to the woods went the bear, to rest and regroup for her next attack...

 

 

L.J.

 

 

LOVE this shot! What great action. You can just see her getting ready for some nice tasty salmon, to bad that she missed.

 

That's cool that she brought her family along for the fun, the little ones are to cute!

[RubyLee]

You are so talented and have an excellent photographer's eye. You've really captured these special moments with the bears. .

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[celestialcruiser]

Loved the female shots trying to get her salmon, but those babies are total cuteness. The captions are perfect!

[framer]

L.J.,

This is the best Alaskan review I've ever seen. You've open my eyes to new areas. I'm changing my plans for our next trip in 2 years. You really out did yourself.

Thanks for all your effort.

framer

[poolwife]

Yes, I sure do agree with LEtue from yesterday at 5:35 pm.

 

Your pictures are awesome and it is really the best Alaska review I have ever read and being an Alaska fanatic I have read quite a few. There was another review written by a girl who was about 21 who went last year with her family that was good also. I think her name was Beach______. I can't quite remember.

 

I was really interested in reading your story/review as we did a 7 day independent tour of the Kenai Peninsula ourselves June 14 - 22, then started our cruise out of Seward on Celebrity's Millenium. I, like you, wrote a similar review in July but I have not to date finished it. I got in the first week up until we left Anchorage on the train to go to Seward. My review doesn't compare to yours. It was my first time putting pictures on cruise critic and they turned out all different sizes. You did really cool things like your bear trips. Ours was more laid back.

 

Also, when I was on the trip, I had not planned on writing the review so there was a lot of things I wish I had taken pictures of because of doing the review. I have been away on several trips since returning from Alaska on June 29 so I hope to be able to get back to it and finish writing. It was fun for me to write it anyways.

 

I so look forward to the rest of your review. It is a most enjoyable and captivating reading. I love the way you write. Keep up the great work.

[am-mc]

I have to agree with the last few posters - This is the most amazing review i have ever seen - it makes me feel like we are right there. Gives me something to think about before we go on our trip. Maybe I should try to blog our trip for my family to see and enjoy - or maybe my dad wants to tell the stories....I dont know - but your review is giving me so many ideas.

 

Cant wait until you get to the cruise section!!!

[NoobCruise]

I'm going through withdrawls tonight with no new additions lol I'm looking forward to more :D

[sue402001]

I'm going through withdrawls tonight with no new additions lol I'm looking forward to more :D

 

I second NoobCruise! :rolleyes:

[Linda the Book Lover]

Wow what a great way to end my stressful day --- thanks for the great pics!

[WalleyeLJ]

...and we're back! Sorry all - went to the movies last night!

 

 

So...while the bears hadn't been that successful so far, the humans continued to put a dent in fish waiting to head upstream.

 

 

 

Rusty working to hook another Sockeye

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our float plane neighbors hook another feisty one!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since there were so many fish, of course it wasn't long before we had another ursine visitor, our young male, who was 0-2 on the day so far...

 

 

 

Daduntdadunt, dadunt, daduntdaduntdaduntdaduntDADA!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here I go, here I go, here I go..AGAIN!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Son of a biscuit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now all I've got is water on my face...not eggs, not salmon...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enter stage left...

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Here comes Momma bear and her cubs!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I can feel it, comin' in the air today...Uh-OH!!!" (Our young male is about 100 feet to the right of momma and the cubs - he smells her and knows he's in BIG trouble!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, our young risk taker decides discretion is the better part of valor, and hightails it up the hill to the right...

 

Momma bear finally caught the scent of the youngster and in fine bear fashion decided she was going to lay down the law and, with kids in tow, started off in pursuit along the bank and up the hillside...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rusty explained that the bears spend a huge amount of time fighting over territory and establishing a very distinct hierarchy - even more than fishing on many days.

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

The captions are hilarious! We just need sound so you can put voices to each of them :D

 

I just love all of your pictures!!!!

 

 

Thanks Linda!

[WalleyeLJ]

Awesome..photos.. great captions too! Hope we get so lucky leaving in a few days!

 

Ials - thanks so much. Have a wonderful trip!!!

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

LOVE this shot! What great action. You can just see her getting ready for some nice tasty salmon, to bad that she missed.

 

That's cool that she brought her family along for the fun, the little ones are to cute!

 

They were SO much fun! The only thing they didn't do was wrestle - which would have been hilarious! Maybe next time...:)

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

LOVE this shot! What great action. You can just see her getting ready for some nice tasty salmon, to bad that she missed.

 

That's cool that she brought her family along for the fun, the little ones are to cute!

 

There were SO cute. The only thing that would have made it better would have been a baby bear wrestling match! Maybe next time...:)

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

You are so talented and have an excellent photographer's eye. You've really captured these special moments with the bears. .

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

 

I try RubyLee - there are a lot of NOT great photos and missed moments you'll never see;)!

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

L.J.,

 

This is the best Alaskan review I've ever seen. You've open my eyes to new areas. I'm changing my plans for our next trip in 2 years. You really out did yourself.

 

Thanks for all your effort.

 

framer

 

Thanks framer! I'm sorry it's taking so long to get everything posted. Between returning to the day job, catching up on sleep, the Olympics and my tendancy to talk/write too much (one of the downfalls of my failed "live" report attempt), and actually sorting out and tweaking 12,000 photos...it's just taking a while! I'm glad that at least some folks have found it entertaining and/or informative.

 

As for changing future plans, I'm with you. While we've loved cruising Alaska twice, we definitely plan on returning to do a land ony, bear focused trip in 2-3 years:D!

 

L.J.

[Linda the Book Lover]

Sometimes a Mommy Bear just has to lay down the law!

[WalleyeLJ]

Yes, I sure do agree with LEtue from yesterday at 5:35 pm.

 

Your pictures are awesome and it is really the best Alaska review I have ever read and being an Alaska fanatic I have read quite a few. There was another review written by a girl who was about 21 who went last year with her family that was good also. I think her name was Beach______. I can't quite remember.

 

I was really interested in reading your story/review as we did a 7 day independent tour of the Kenai Peninsula ourselves June 14 - 22, then started our cruise out of Seward on Celebrity's Millenium. I, like you, wrote a similar review in July but I have not to date finished it. I got in the first week up until we left Anchorage on the train to go to Seward. My review doesn't compare to yours. It was my first time putting pictures on cruise critic and they turned out all different sizes. You did really cool things like your bear trips. Ours was more laid back.

 

Also, when I was on the trip, I had not planned on writing the review so there was a lot of things I wish I had taken pictures of because of doing the review. I have been away on several trips since returning from Alaska on June 29 so I hope to be able to get back to it and finish writing. It was fun for me to write it anyways.

 

I so look forward to the rest of your review. It is a most enjoyable and captivating reading. I love the way you write. Keep up the great work.

 

 

poolwife - you're very kind. I would love it if you would post the link to your review here. I did a lot of my planning for our folks posts, and it's neat seeing what people liked and didn't like, and what they did similar and different.

 

It's funny you mentioned about not planning on writing the review. I did actually plan on doing something like this (although not this extensive!), so I did take some shots editorially to help me both in telling the story, as well as remembering some of the details I'd forget otherwise. I also shoot for selling stock photography, so sometimes I photograph things a little more or differently than a lot of folks.

 

I'll get back to it!

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Sometimes a Mommy Bear just has to lay down the law!

 

 

LOL - just wait for the next post!

 

L.J.