Alaska - One Last Grizzly (DIY)

NOTHING LASTS FOREVER, BUT THE AUTHOR HAS HAD A HECK OF A RUN ON ARCTIC GRIZZLY

- Paul Atkins

It was a long shot, especially through sleepy eyes and the not so comfortable place I was sitting. I just couldn’t get settled. It was cold too. The early morning chill was abnormal for August, more so than the previous year where t-shirts and shorts were the norm. The big bear swimming on the other side of the river didn’t seem to mind though and he wasn’t really paying that much attention to me or my buddy Lew anyway. I eased the safety off, guessed the distance and squeezed.

The river was shallow this year, more so than I’ve seen in a long time, maybe ever. The mighty Noatak had changed, and the further north we went even more so. The current had pushed sandbars to new locations, flattened out others and those places where we once could go easily, had disappeared. There were moments when I thought we would have to turn back, but then Lew would find a narrow channel and squeeze the boat through with barely enough clearance. It was like trying to put a puzzle together without all the pieces.

As we pushed on, I started having doubts that we would ever make it to our bear camp this year, I mean the original bear camp, up on the Eli River. The one I’ve written so much about before. The place where we’ve been going for several years; the place where dreams were made and big bears visited like the plague. It saddened me actually, that I might not get to see the Eli again or at least get a chance to hunt its game rich banks once more.