Saturday 11 June 2011
Highlights: Boat Plane Flight, Black Bear close up

The last major event of the trip, a flight to Redoubt Bay to check out the local wildlife.  This started with my first ever ‘float’ or boat flight.  Redoubt Bay can only be rested by air or boat, or in this case both!

The flight down was on a 6 seater (including pilot seat).  We had to get permission to take off from the International Airport as take-off saw us go right over their runway.  Weird seeing a 747 so close up from the air!  The flight wasn’t bumping at all which was great.

After arrival we had lunch at the lodge (only private land in the area) which included a salmon burger.  After lunch we went out onto the water, visiting points of interest.  The salmon are only just starting to return, so there was only a few jumping around but seeing some of the places they swim upstream shows their crazy determination.

The sights were fantastic, very calming being on the water.  We also caught sight of some Bald Eagles homes and also a badger nest.  But we really wanted the black bear.  After 3 hours on the bay we got a call, a black bear had entered the lodge area, so we quickly headed back.  And want a sight we got, because the bear was at the lodge it was possible to get very close and get some great photos.  The bear didn’t seem to care about humans and just had fun, pushing things over, looking into windows etc.  Awesome!

The flight back went off without any problems this time flying in a bigger 7 seat boat plane.  We got to see some whales offshore feeding on the salmon and flew over a remote tribal village.  Landing was very easy once again.  The pilot said it was a rare day without any strong winds, so apparently we missed out on the bumpy joy ride.