I am so glad that I’ve made it more than half way through the month of July. With as many crazy people and bears there are, I have been starting to wonder why this place exists. Most people that come here seem to be focused on bears and can’t see anything else. They have “bear” colored glasses as I like to say.
I, on the other hand, have started to see more and more beauty in other things at the park. I believe this is due to the fact that some days I just can not stand that some people do not have an appreciation for the small things. For example, there is a very pretty and very small white flower on the trail to the falls (which are filled with bears) that has its stamen pointed towards the ground; it’s called a Shy Maiden. Very few people even know the flower exists. As a matter of fact, most of our visitors come only for a couple of hours and only have time to cross the river, go to the falls, view bears, cross back across the river and fly back to where they came from. We’re getting some odd 250 to 300 people a day and most of them are just here for the day. Now, from looking at that number, it doesn’t seem like a lot of people but, for as small of an area that these people stay in for the day (maybe only a couple of miles) we do get some big crowds of people with “bear” colored glasses. It’s enough to drive anyone crazy in my opinion.
This has been a great adventure, but I’m still sitting on the fence about whether or not I’d like to come back. I think I’ll wait till the season has been completed before I make up my mind. From what I understand, next month will be completely different and I’ll have time to focus on things other than people management and bears.
Currently my evening program is about identifying animal evidence, but I was asked to focus my program on bears, so a large portion of my program is now about bears. I don’t like it. So, I have begun to plan and research a new program focused around Novarupta and volcanoes. I’m much happier about doing this subject.
I really enjoy going to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. I enjoy talking about the geology of this area. It’s fascinating. Actually on my last Valley Tour, I saw a moose as well!! It was my first moose sighting in about two and a half months; my first sighting since Anchorage even. I’ve also recently seen a wolf on the road to the Valley! Wolf sightings are very exciting. I saw wolf fishing at the falls about a week ago. They are really good at fishing.
Wolves are a lot better anglers than I am. As a matter of fact, don’t tell my friend Olin, but I have yet to catch a salmon. I am so slack, or I’m just a really bad fisherwoman. My line has been messed up for a while and I never know how to feel if I have a fish on or not when I’m fishing. I suppose I did snag a fish in the dorsal fin the other day, but I’m not allowed to keep fish I snag anywhere else than in the mouth. Fishing for salmon is so difficult, because by the time they’re coming up the river they’re not feeding. It doesn’t matter what you put on your line fly wise, because you’re just snagging the fish anyhow. In my opinion, I think if you live in the bush you should be able to have a subsistence fishing license, because I like eating fish, I just can’t seem to catch them. I’m lucky that everyone likes to share their fish or at least most people do.
Tomorrow I’ll be hosting a pirate party and salmon bake. I’m very excited about it. I think there will be lots of different and good foods to eat including many different salmon recipes. It’ll be good fun. Thanks for getting all of the pirate stuff for me mom! I even covered a small box in foil to make it look like a silver treasure chest, and filled it with candy.
Time is still going by very quickly here. Soon enough it’ll be July 31st; Katmai Halloween! That should be good fun as well. With time passing so quickly, I need to start applying for a new job also. I haven’t seen too many job openings that I’m interested in, but I have applied for a job in the Grand Cayman doing environmental education. I figure if anything, it gives me more experience doing applications. We’ll see how that goes.
I can’t wait to go into town. I’m starting to have a bit of island fever. It’ll be nice to go into town for an interview actually when I get one.
I hope all is well were everyone else is. I need to get back to improving my new program. It’ll be good to talk about something other than bears. *smiles*
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