Travels with Samantha Slide Show Page 9

Seven o'clock and I'm walking back from a waterfall through moss-carpeted forest. There is still plenty of light, but the high clouds and thick forest make the trail a bit mysterious. Following standard procedure in these woods, I am singing a Mozart aria to apprise the bears of my presence. Thirty yards away, a cinnamon-colored form rises up out of the tall grass. The form takes shape as a charging grizzly bear/music critic. Starting from a dead stop, he closes the 30 yards between us in a few seconds without apparent strain. I raise an arm, say "hey, bear" in a normal tone (yes, and pitch) of voice as I move down the steep hillside clutching tree trunks for balance with my free arm. The 350-pound adolescent stops on the trail ten feet above me and stares straight into my eyes for five seconds. I could have sworn he was laughing.

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Flying over the Alaska Peninsula's stark mountains

[BIG] and then in a float plane

to Katmai National Park (Chapter X) was a relief. Here was a community of perhaps 100 people and 20 bears. People watch

and the bears just get closer

[BIG] and closer

[BIG].

They look pretty peaceful don't they?

Katmai National Park is home to the world's largest grizzly bears, commonly referred to here as the Alaskan Brown Bear. Because of their rich salmon diet, they grow to over 1000 lbs in weight, making them in fact the world's largest land predator. Brooks Camp, where I stayed, is the overnight home of about 150 people and 20 bears, who live in closer contact with each other than anywhere else in the world. Bears are normally solitary animals but here they've established a wolf-like dominance hierarchy. As many as 15 bears congregate around Brooks Falls to grab salmon as they try to jump over the falls to reach spawning grounds upstream.

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