I found some letters on my computer that I wrote from Port Armstrong. We have beautiful weather today and I want to go fly my airplane so I am going to paste some of those letters here for now.
Boy, are we having fun with the bears! Ervin has been here for about two weeks. He just left today, but he was staying in the house down by my shop. His front door opens on a board walk that is just a few feet from the corner of the shop, and down about another 30 feet is the shop door. He calls that area of the board walk the “Main Intersection”. It is where we and the bears use the same section of board walk for about 50 feet. The second day Ervin was here, when he left his house to come up here for coffee in the morning, there were great big wet bear tracks on the walk right at his door. That afternoon we smoked some salmon on his second floor deck. The next morning a sow and her two cubs were circling the house and trying to figure out how to get on the second floor deck. I had some sheets of aluminum stacked against the wall and they knocked them down trying to get up to that good smelling smoked salmon.
They have been pretty regular customers here. We see them several times every day, and often closer than is comfortable for either of us. They have been catching fish under our upper bridge and then taking off under the boardwalk and behind Ervin’s house to eat them in the bushes. But that is only when they have a fish to eat or in a hurry. When they are just coming or going they prefer to use the boardwalk in this spot.
At least they are not aggressive. They don’t like to see us up close any better than we like to see them at close range. They take off running but stop and look around as soon as they get to the bushes. One day Ervin and I chased the bears up into the bushes and as soon as they got there, they all stopped. We saw three heads looking at us from behind the bushes, the two cubs’ heads right together and Mama’s just above. They must have stood up on their hind legs because they were looking at us over the top of the brush. Ervin said it looked like they were posing for a family portrait.
These cubs look really cute. They look like big teddy bears, and they act like a couple of kids. They are always playing and into mischief and curious about everything. But then you have to realize that they are really big. They are at least 2 and a half to 3 feet tall at the shoulders and must weigh close to 300 pounds. I saw one of them stand up on his hind legs and he must have stood 7 feet tall. And their legs are very long and big around. I have been amazed at how long the legs are on these bears. When they first came around last spring they stayed at the head of the bay and ate grass. They looked like buffalo with the big hump on their back! They really did! When they walk, they take very long steps. They just have very long, powerful legs.
We have been trying to convince them to stay down on the beach and not come up among our boardwalks. Lon got some cracker shells and another guy from the Little Port Walter hatchery brought over some screechers. The cracker shells are things you shoot from a 12 gauge shotgun. It sends out a thing that goes about 150 feet and explodes with a loud bang, and the screechers also go in the shotgun but they go out with a loud screech. They are lots of fun! Today, a three year old male came down to where I was welding in the raceways. He was about 30 feet from me and hadn’t seen me. I put a screecher in the barrel and a cracker shell in the magazine, of course I had three slugs in the magazine after that. But I shot the bear in the butt with the screecher. It didn’t screech but it sure sent out a lot of smoke and fire. I had to move off to the side to see around the smoke to see him run for the bushes. I shot a cracker shell into the bushes and it must have exploded right beside him. I haven’t seen him since.
Yesterday, Ervin and I were up at the lakes. I had to replace a valve in one of the 12” pipelines and then recharge it. We worked there for about five hours. When we finished, we loaded our gear into the canoe and paddled across the lake. When we were unloading the canoe we saw a big brown bear on the hillside just a little above where we had just been. He was walking with a strong limp. In fact, he was not using one front leg at all. He was coming around the lake toward us. When he got to within about 300 yards from us, I hollered. He heard me and immediately ducked into the bushes. Then we couldn’t see him anymore and I got really uncomfortable. I finished packing our packs as quickly as I could and picked up my 45-70 rifle and we headed down the mountain as fast as we could.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Port Armstrong Hatchery
I have had lots of jobs in my life but I think the most fun and satisfying was when I worked at Port Armstrong Hatchery. That is on the south east side of Baranof Island in Southeast Alaska. My boss, Lon Garrison, was great to work for. He gave me a list of things he wanted done on Monday morning and then left me alone to do it. At the end of the week he would see what was done and make up a new list for the next week. We worked very well together.
Before I was hired we were told that there were lots of Alaskan Brown Bears on Baranof and if we didn’t have bear stories now we surely would after working at Port Armstrong. It was really our biggest concern with Kay and Christy being 8 and 11. Lon had two girls 7 and 10 and they all played very well together. For three months during the summer when the bears were around the hatchery the kids could not even go between the houses without an armed escort.
My old friend, Ervin Brackel, (Some say I should call him my long time friend but after all he is a couple years older than I am and that is old) came to visit and fish for halibut and salmon. He had a ball with the returning Cohos and he showed me a few things about catching them. Like when there were acres of Pink salmon on the surface, you could cast over them and let the lure sink below them and retrieve slowly and pick up a Coho under them.
After he made two trips up there from Montana we had a project that I didn’t have time for and I thought of Ervin, it was perfect for him to do. When I suggested it to Lon he went for it and we worked out the details. Ervin came up to help remodel the house that was very close to my shop. Little did he know that once he got there Lon made him sign a contract that he would finish the remodel project. That bothered him but I knew both Lon and Ervin’s abilities so I said, “Just sign it!” which he did.
Ervin always said that he expected to be working for me and instead he was just told what we wanted and “Go do it.” He did and did a great job and also had lots of fun fishing and had his airfare paid and made some money to take home with him along with his fish.
There was a board walk that went through out the hatchery. From the bunkhouse the board walk crossed a bridge over the creek and along side the west powerhouse, then right next to the house that Ervin was remodeling and living in and then on the other side of the boardwalk was my shop.
This board walk was about 8 feet wide and right after the creek there was a “Y” with a 4 foot wide board walk going about 50 feet to the south to the powerhouse. Then on the same side was the house Ervin was working on and about 10 feet after his door onto the board walk was the corner of my shop. You had to go about 30 feet on down to get to the door of the shop.
One morning I was doing my morning rounds which included checking out that power house. As I came out there was a brown bear on the main board walk heading to towards the shop. That section of the boardwalk seemed to be a main thoroughfare for the bears leaving the creek and heading for the south beach. We always hollered at the bears when they were on the boardwalk because we wanted them to know that those boardwalks were for us and they, the bears, were suppose to stay on the beach and woods. The bears were pretty good about it for most of the area but that spot between the house and my shop there just was no good place for the bears to go so they used the boardwalk there.
Anyway, as I was saying, this morning I was just coming out of the powerhouse and saw this big brown bear on the main boardwalk. I had my 45-70 with me so I just hollered and stomped my feet and the bear took off. He ran between the house and the shop and turned a bit heading down to the beach. Well, unbenounced to me, Ervin had come out on his house and on this beautiful morning he stepped off the boardwalk and was relieving himself beside a tree when I came out of the power house. He looked up as I hollered and saw the bear head right for him. He said to himself, “NO! Don’t chase him here!!!” He stepped behind the tree and the bear ran within about 3 feet of him. After he calmed down a bit he wiped off his boots and pant leg and told me what happened. The bear was long gone by this time so we had a good laugh about it.
Before I was hired we were told that there were lots of Alaskan Brown Bears on Baranof and if we didn’t have bear stories now we surely would after working at Port Armstrong. It was really our biggest concern with Kay and Christy being 8 and 11. Lon had two girls 7 and 10 and they all played very well together. For three months during the summer when the bears were around the hatchery the kids could not even go between the houses without an armed escort.
My old friend, Ervin Brackel, (Some say I should call him my long time friend but after all he is a couple years older than I am and that is old) came to visit and fish for halibut and salmon. He had a ball with the returning Cohos and he showed me a few things about catching them. Like when there were acres of Pink salmon on the surface, you could cast over them and let the lure sink below them and retrieve slowly and pick up a Coho under them.
After he made two trips up there from Montana we had a project that I didn’t have time for and I thought of Ervin, it was perfect for him to do. When I suggested it to Lon he went for it and we worked out the details. Ervin came up to help remodel the house that was very close to my shop. Little did he know that once he got there Lon made him sign a contract that he would finish the remodel project. That bothered him but I knew both Lon and Ervin’s abilities so I said, “Just sign it!” which he did.
Ervin always said that he expected to be working for me and instead he was just told what we wanted and “Go do it.” He did and did a great job and also had lots of fun fishing and had his airfare paid and made some money to take home with him along with his fish.
There was a board walk that went through out the hatchery. From the bunkhouse the board walk crossed a bridge over the creek and along side the west powerhouse, then right next to the house that Ervin was remodeling and living in and then on the other side of the boardwalk was my shop.
This board walk was about 8 feet wide and right after the creek there was a “Y” with a 4 foot wide board walk going about 50 feet to the south to the powerhouse. Then on the same side was the house Ervin was working on and about 10 feet after his door onto the board walk was the corner of my shop. You had to go about 30 feet on down to get to the door of the shop.
One morning I was doing my morning rounds which included checking out that power house. As I came out there was a brown bear on the main board walk heading to towards the shop. That section of the boardwalk seemed to be a main thoroughfare for the bears leaving the creek and heading for the south beach. We always hollered at the bears when they were on the boardwalk because we wanted them to know that those boardwalks were for us and they, the bears, were suppose to stay on the beach and woods. The bears were pretty good about it for most of the area but that spot between the house and my shop there just was no good place for the bears to go so they used the boardwalk there.
Anyway, as I was saying, this morning I was just coming out of the powerhouse and saw this big brown bear on the main boardwalk. I had my 45-70 with me so I just hollered and stomped my feet and the bear took off. He ran between the house and the shop and turned a bit heading down to the beach. Well, unbenounced to me, Ervin had come out on his house and on this beautiful morning he stepped off the boardwalk and was relieving himself beside a tree when I came out of the power house. He looked up as I hollered and saw the bear head right for him. He said to himself, “NO! Don’t chase him here!!!” He stepped behind the tree and the bear ran within about 3 feet of him. After he calmed down a bit he wiped off his boots and pant leg and told me what happened. The bear was long gone by this time so we had a good laugh about it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)