The Chase

Last night, Hollie and I decided to get out and see some of the area. We hopped in the 4runner and headed down towards Black Rapids, my intent was to make it to the waterfall and maybe beyond to Paxson depending on what we saw. I gave Hollie the camera, that was a mistake. A few miles down the road, she was hanging out the window taking shots of the mountains (we're surrounded by mountains). She turned into an absolute shutter bug. Click, click, click. As I drove down the highway, I'd hear "slow down", "stop" "turn around", "Uh, you missed it, go back." Of course, every curve in the road or hill we crested had views more beautiful than the last. The constant stopping was fine but I kept shortening our trip in my head. Not going to make it to Paxson. There goes Summit Lake. Forget about the last place I saw caribou. Oddly enough it worked in our advantage. Oh ye of little faith. When sightseeing with Hollie, we've always been pretty lucky seeing unique things. Black bear cubs in Shenandoah. Mountain Grouse strutting in Washington. Moose running down the road in Maine. Last night was no different. As we were getting close to Black Rapids, we saw a moose calf on a side road, jogging for lack of a better term. We slowed down to see him and turn around to get some pictures. He ran towards us a little then cut across the road down the opposite side road he had come from. Hollie was having a hard time getting a shot so I sped up, so he sped up, I turned down the road he was on and he went into full run. The road, however, had a chainlink fence on both sides and a bar across the road about nose height for this little guy. Most full size moose would have jumped the bar, but this little guy, not knowing better went straight for the fence and hit it going full speed. The fence pushed in like a big spring then bounced him back hard onto his haunches which just gave in and he rolled backwards straight on his ass. Slobber flung out of the side of his mouth. He struggled back up to his feet and shook it off a little and started working his way down the fence, nudging it with his head looking for the way around it, disappearing into the scrub trees on the side of the road. We were both awed and kind of sad for the little guy being so scared. Then we quickly realized why he was alone, his mama was nowhere to be seen and why he was running in the first place. Hollie yelled, "Bear!!!" and started rolling her window up. I tried to see it in the mirror but couldn't, so spun around to look and saw a gray grizzled 5 footer with mascara black eyes and hackle hairs standing on end barreling towards the truck, not walking, not ambling, but sprinting towards us. I rolled up my window too and threw it in reverse, headed towards the bear. We were between him and what he was chasing, my stomach sank instantly. He suddenly saw us and locked up all four paws, skidding to a halt in the gravel behind us about 50 feet away. Hollie was yelling "don't move, don't move" and fumbling with the camera, but my first instinct was to get him past us, so I hit the accelerator. He was only there for a split second, then veered off to his left and into the scrub in the general direction that the moose calf had gone. I kept going back hoping to get a glimpse of him, but he was gone in a huff. Of course, Hollie was upset because she didn't get a picture of the bear, but it all happened so fast and in such a tight area. It was my first grizzly in Alaska and Hollie saw it on her second full day here, lucky girl.
We continued on down the road and she shot more pictures of the mountains and of the dozen or so moose we saw. We also came across a porcupine but he got off the road and into the alder scrub before we could find him again for some shots. We drove for about 3 hours total, the sun only dipping slightly in that time. It was a great way to spend a few hours on a cool Alaska summer night.