#GEO DUCK DIVING ALASKA FULL#

Late every summer, as many as a hundred bears trek here to Anan Creek to fish, along with scavenging bald eagles, harbor seals that pop up in the lagoon like basketballs wearing goggles, and anything else with fur and feathers that can get to the water’s edge.īecause there, in the wet-dog smell of rain-coated bears and the ozone churn of a waterfall, a quarter million salmon are packed so tightly it looks like they’re swimming upstream in Blue Angels formations, caught between tooth and claw as part of the food chain, or by that weird quirk of nature that says spawn and perish. He’s been guiding this trail to the Anan Wildlife Observatory for more than 20 years, and I’ve been coming out here with him every chance I’ve had for at least the last 15.

#GEO DUCK DIVING ALASKA FULL#

The problem is, it’s a Southeast Alaska rainforest absolutely full of leaves, and now I know a bear could be hiding behind any of them.Ībout then is when I realize we-me, my dad, my old friend John Verhey-are on a trail between the bear and the river full of its salmon lunch.

No sooner do I register this than there’s nothing but us and forest again. And then into a bear attached to the snout. Then, like a magician’s very best trick, the branches and late salmonberry fruit turn into a wet snout. Far overhead, a raven looks at us, says “ kwok,” as if we’ll know what he’s saying. Leaves rustle-not a wind chime, the day is still, but a rain chime, the pulse of water.

Geo duck diving alaska