Katmai National Park and Brook's falls was mindblowing good. I flew out on a float plane through the misty morning to land on a glassy Naknek lake. When I arrived at Brook's falls I couldn't stop smiling for half an hour. A dozen brown bears sitting in the river, moving about, catching salmon, fighting over salmon, the salmon attempting (mostly in vain) to jump up the falls. It was insane! Possibly the coolest thing I have ever seen. Park ranger Kate gave me lots of interesting info about the bears. They eat about 90 pounds salmon a day and gain 5-6 pounds a day to prepare for the long winter hibernation.
I climbed up Dumping mountain and got completely drenched from the waist down by the tall, wet grass. I was wearing jeans and a pair of thermal underwear. My wool socks and Gore-Tex shoes got soaked too. The hike was three miles round trip and I was alone in bear country the whole way. I sang songs I knew and made up songs to warn the big fellas of my approach.
"Sometimes you gotta get wet
sometimes you gotta get wet
if you're gonna see the valley, from the mountain's top
sometimes you gotta get wet."
The view was well worth the drenching as you could see out across the park in three directions.
