I have lived in Montana, Utah, and Colorado, and visited Alaska twice and have never seen a bear outside of the zoo… until today!

The salmon are returning to spawn, and the bears are hungry, so it’s prime bear-spotting season in Juneau. Figuring my odds are good right now, I’ve been scoping out some bear-sighting spots for the past few days, and today it paid off, big time.

I found myself, with many other onlookers, watching a mama bear wander around the meadow eating plants voraciously while her two cubs moved around up a very tall tree. Should you be concerned for my safety, I can assure you that I was standing on a high boardwalk-type platform, with a can of bear spray in my pocket. Despite a crowd of people whispering, cameras clicking, and footsteps, mama bear seemed fiercely disinterested in our presence.

Initial impressions

• She’s not a HUGE bear. I know I was up on a platform about 10 feet above her, but I couldn’t help thinking she wasn’t as big as I expected her to be. Another woman taking photos explained that she was a new mom, so maybe she’s a smaller mama bear. She (the woman) seemed to be a regular, who knew all about the local bear community.
• Bears in trees are funny. I experience a combination of awe and amusement seeing something as large as a bear hanging out up high in trees. They don’t seem particularly agile, and it seems like one wrong lumbering move and they will fall right out.
• She (the bear) truly did not care about us, at all. She didn’t even look in our direction once. I was surprised by her indifference, and wondered if she would have behaved differently if we were at ground level with her.
• Juneau smells lovely in the rain.

Ah! What an exciting experience, under very favorable circumstances, to meet my first wild bears. I’m going to keep up the hunt for the next few weeks to see if I can meet some more!

One more step towards becoming an official Juneauite – complete!

Now if I could just close on my house…