Eagle River Valley

Eagle River is a community about a half hour north of Anchorage and offers some great hiking and entrances to the Chugach Mountains.  There is a wonderful Nature Center at the end of a 12 mile paved road which follows the North Fork of the Eagle River up into the valley toward Eagle Glacier.  The valley is home to both brown and black bear, beaver, wolverine, moose, and wolf to name a few…not to mention spawning salmon in the later summer months.  In fact, the State maintained trails closest to the river and spawning grounds are closed to pedestrian traffic when the salmon are running due to the high concentration of bears coming to dine.  These closures are for the protection of both the bears and the people.

Joanne (caching handle Meljo) and I headed out for some geocaching fun in Eagle River.  Having arrived at our first destination, we found road construction and associated crew/vehicles (welcome to summer in Alaska) surrounding the pull off that was to be our parking area for the first few caches.  We squeezed in among the trucks and trailers etc and set about gathering our gear and dogs for a trek into the woods and along the river.  A nearby flagman kept an eye on us and when he realized we two middle-aged ladies were about to head off into the woods, he hollered over to us that there had been a brown bear wandering around the area earlier.  Hmmmm.  How long ago, we asked.  About 2 hours, he said.  Well, that bear could be all the way in another valley by now we thought and we’ve got caches to get, so off we set waving thank you to the man who just stared after us with who knows what on his mind.

People trails are non-existent in this particular section of wilderness, so we made lots of noise while bushwhacking from one negligible game trail to the next, bear spray at the ready.  Fortunately for us, we found all three caches we were looking for and saw no bear nor even any evidence of bear…at least not during this portion of our caching day.  Later, on our hike out from the Nature Center, we saw and happened to follow some black bear tracks (they were headed the same way we were), but did not ever see their owner.  It just goes to show you that bears are everywhere here in Alaska.  Just the other day I saw a beautiful black bear cross the street in a heavily populated residential area.

Joanne and I enjoyed several hours of hiking and caching in Eagle River.  Another wonderful day in Alaska.  I’ve included some photos below:  Sitka roses which grow wild all over, a beaver made pond of sorts which is one of many area salmon spawning grounds, and a cast of a brown bear footprint from the Nature Center.  Yes, it is a real cast made from a real and actual foot print.  Note:  the cast is of a Kodiak Brown Bear, so it is quite a bit larger than ones found anywhere but on Kodiak Island.  Goodness, how would you like to run into that bear?  During my three weeks working and hiking on Kodiak  last August, I must say I have never been more bear aware than at that time.  They sure do grow ’em big over there!

Stay tuned.