BEARS, BEARS, BEARS (Katmai Nat'l Park)

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Gris

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Jan 16, 2004
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Flyin Thru The Night :-)
If and when I can remember one of my Webshots passwords I'll put up a few pics. Just returned from 8 days of touring only as much as we could of this expansive park in a DeHavilland Beaver (float plane): 500 miles of coastline, millions of acres, tundra, mountains, gin clear rivers, lakes that are 10, 20, 30 and 40 miles long and a thousand feet deep, over a dozen active volcanoes, thousands of brown bears, as well as wolves, wolverines, fox, moose, caribou, elk, et al. Multiple up close and personal encounters with very, very, very large bears (never again will I lose one minute of sleep worrying about those tiny black bears - irrespective of whether it's rational to think that way...) as we salmon and trout fished our way through perhaps the world's greatest fishery. During all of these encounters never once did I or my compatriots, locals or anybody ever have a firearm or other weapon. (Have to have a RPG to take a Grizz out at close range.) More spefically, the way it was explained to me was "well, Gris, it's like this: a year or two ago they found the remains of four hunter campers and a big dead Grizz. Seems he managed to kill all four campers before he died from the 56 times they apparently shot him..." Anyhoo, day two a small one (maybe only 8 feet tall) appears about 40 yards down the creek from me, turns and starts coming AT me when I take his pic. I sort of just freeze when he gets to about 50 feet from from me. Lucky for me my young bush pilot buddy Chris jumps between us raises his arms over his 6'4" head and shouts "get outta here bear!" Much to my surprise the bear acts like a cowardly dog and scrams, a ways at least. Many more encounters with much larger (you would not BELIEVE how big these things get) ursas. Best one of all though was next day when we were salmon fishing where a huge bear had been reportedly harrassing some folks a few days before. Chris the unafraid (girls picture a 6'4" Johnny Depp who he's a dead ringer for) comes running up right after I just threw another flopping Coho on my pile saying "right behind you Gris - hey you, critter, put that fish down!" Of course, I hear "Grizz" freeze and almost wet my pants knowing there's a giant GrizZ right smack behind me. Actually, I was the butt of too many jokes to count that night on account of my fear of little red foxes...

Anybody want any salmon? I only brought back 60 lbs. of fillets! :D
 
I'm jealous!!! Sounds like an epic time. Looking forward to more details and photos.
 
Sounds like a trip! Bet you pretty near forgot all about playing music for a few days! :D
 
Bet you pretty near forgot all about playing music for a few days!
Yup, totally, except now we are auditioning two guys for a new band project this Sunday. One guy, the bassist, is also an excellent guitar player and does drums and keys as well. The other guy, supposedly a great drummer, is an ACCOMPLISHED pianist... If they stick we could be a really good group - since our lead singer is also a great drummer, and our lead guitarist also plays some bass and mandolin, the possibilities are limitless! Only "downside" is since neither one of the new guys sings Dudley and I will be pressed into backup vocals again, maybe even some lead GULP for a changeup... :eek:
 
OK, here's the "liitle" eight-footerright before he locked in on me...
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Arrghhh, this laptop is so slow it sucks. Anyhoo, here's the thief fox
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and a giant Griz from a distance...
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Click on the pic after it opens and it'll go full size and "put you there..." :eek:
 
Gris said:
... and does drums and keys as well. The other guy, supposedly a great drummer... since our lead singer is also a great drummer...
Damn - sounds like I won't be moving to Jax any time soon :)
So, you went from "Bearly Live 2006" to "Bears - LIVE - 2006" in a few weeks! Heck all I got was "Barely ALIVE 2006" to "Bearly Live 2006". I'll take your year over mine anyday ;)

Good to see that you are still practicing! I just put another small order in to MusiciansFriend last night. I'm ready for some more live playing!

See you soon, Amigo!
 
Yeah, we discovered the secret to no fear of giant bears - red wine! (and Chris the bear whisperer, uh i mean shouter) Added another laaarge one i forgot about that kinda snuck up behind me... :eek:
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:eek: :eek: :eek:

And I was just going to post a trip report for our Catskills week, featuring the 2-bears-shinnying-down-the-tree act and Genie-gets-a-snoutful-of-quills act, but I just foggodaboudit.

Holy smokes, that was close! The fish are gorgeous too.
 

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