20260904 Friday, September 4, 2026; A Change in the Weather

20260904 Friday, September 4, 2026; A Change in the Weather

The night was significantly more comfortable with the windows of the cabin open, although there was still plenty of daylight coming in the windows when Terri and John wanted to go to bed at 8:30-9:00 p.m., and daybreak occurs at about 6:30 a.m.  The furnace did come on periodically during the night to keep the temperature above 65 degrees, but only briefly, and the electrically powered kerosine furnace is pretty quiet. 

 
When daybreak arrived, we could hear waves breaking on the beach, signaling onshore winds had arrived as the weather forecast had predicted.  There was also a light intermittent rain.  Terri and John headed out to check the weather at the ranger station, and then on to breakfast when they reported the sow with a single cub was working its way up the beach.  They seem to be regulars.  

While we have heard that the lynx is also a regular visitor as it makes its rounds in the morning, we did not spot it.  We had granola bars, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate for our breakfast as we had quite filled ourselves at last night’s dinner.

We had heard at the lodge about beavers in a nearby pond, so we checked that out after doing a head count on the bridge.  There were 7 or 8 bears snorkeling around the bridge, but the light was not ideal for filming or photography.  

The beaver ponds were past the bridge and to the left at the major fork in the road leading to the falls and lake.  There is quite a sizable pond to the left side of the road, and a slightly smaller one on the right side, connected by a small culvert.  
We saw 2 or 3 beavers swimming around the pond in the distance, and one eventually came across the pond directly toward us.  We were standing above the culvert.  The beaver actually swam up the very narrow channel connecting the culvert to the pond, and did a flip turn just below the culvert when it saw us standing there.  Unfortunately, there was a lot of grass and vegetation on either side of the channel obscuring any clear view of the beaver and confusing autofocus mechanisms on our cameras, so we didn’t get a good picture of it even though it was easily within 6’ of us when it did its flip turn and swam back to the main pond.  

We continued walking up to the falls where our familiar hot tub bear was still king of the falls.  His routine had not changed, although there seemed to be more fish jumping and the water level seemed a bit higher.  Most of the fish jumping looked like rainbow trout.  We haven’t seen any sockeye actually jumping at the falls during this trip.  

We did have a small bear walk directly in front of the falls viewing platform several feet below us before entering the river and snorkeling its way between the falls and riffles viewing platform.  Both bears seemed to be aware of each other’s presence and they kept a respectable distance.  There were fly fishermen below the riffles that had to clear the water as the small bear made its way down through the riffles on the far shore.  

We ran into some of the fly fishing guides relaxing a bit in the shelter between the falls and riffles platforms.  They have been using small barbless octopus hooks tied about 3” below salmon egg lures that looked like pink pearls.  These were in turn suspended about 2-3’ below 1” diameter “indicators”, which are basically bobbers.  People doing the fly fishing excursions seem to be pretty thrilled with the experience and happy to catch a lot of fish which are all released.  

We returned to the lodge at lunchtime and watched the sow with a single cub saunter down the beach between a parked float plane and the lodge entrance.   

So far, on this trip, the bugs have been manageable.  We did bring mosquito netting that can be worn over hats, and we are glad we brought them.  For the most part, if you’re walking along, the bugs are not a problem, but if you stop and spend any time talking with people, bugs quickly start to get in your face, and it gets annoying very quickly.  The same applies to standing around behind a camera waiting for wildlife action.  It’s too bad they don’t make mosquito netting with clear windows in the front because the netting does obscure wildlife viewing.  

The cabins have screens on the windows, but it doesn’t take any time at all for bugs to get in through an opened door.  So far, we haven’t had trouble with mosquitoes buzzing around our ears at night in the cabin, but there are plenty of tiny flying bugs that will land on your phone screen if the room lights are out.  They are definitely attracted to light, but fortunately don’t seem to be biting bugs.  The cabins don’t come with the Zevo bug traps that they had in the Antlers Inn, but we probably could use them.  Ben has been applying insect repellant containing DEET while Janet has not, so we’ve been conducting a placebo controlled trial on the effectiveness of DEET.  

Ben rented a Canon RF 100-500mm f7.1 L zoom lens for this trip, and at this particular locale, big zoom lenses are everywhere.  Canon and Nikon gear dominate the long lens scene with Sony and others more common among the more compact gear.  The white Canon L series lenses stand out and seem to be the most popular amongst the more serious photographers.  Terri has had a Canon EF 100-400mm L series zoom lens which has been her main wildlife photography lens for many years, but she is doing more and more photography in general with her iPhone because of the convenience.  This was Ben’s first time shooting with a 100-500mm zoom, and it really is an ideal lens for photo safaris, but in this location, the bears and humans get very close, and video shot on iPhones have better stabilization than video shot through a high zoom ratio lens.  Many of Janet’s photos (all shot on her iPhone) are quite incredible.  She has a knack for being able to be in the right place at the right time to catch interesting animal action.  But images shot with the big camera and lens are noticeably sharper and clearer when compared side by side.  But for viewing on iPhone screens, they can be nearly indistinguishable.  

Despite the rain in the forecast, we really only had a few scattered light showers and drizzle with mostly heavily overcast skies.  There was more wind coming off Nakenek Lake, but this did not seem to discourage the bears one bit.  We spent the afternoon wandering across the bridge and around the beach.  We saw a bear come ashore next to one of the float planes which forced us to back away all the way up the path to the lodge.  A ranger admonished us for being closer than 50m, but we were walking backwards about as fast as we could without tripping or taking a detour straight into the woods.  

There was a light wind on the bridge that was surprisingly warm at times.  This was nice because it blew the mosquitoes and flies out of our area, and it was very pleasant just sitting and watching the bears going about their business in the area around the bridge.  We did spot another sow with two blond cubs in addition to the two other families we had become quite familiar with (one with a single cub with a limp from having encountered a porcupine earlier in the season and one with a blond and a dark cub).  

Dinner featured halibut, beef short ribs, garlic herb mashed potatoes, and garlic asparagus.  This was quite a decent meal even with just the hot entree option.  

After dinner, we made another trip out to the beaver pond, but there was no activity on the pond for quite some time.  You have to wonder how these animals that live in underground dens and in beaver lodges get around in the dark.  It’s not like they have skylights or lighting underground.  At least the beavers can see daylight through the light by their underwater entrance.  

As night fell, we had hoped to see the lynx again and had set up our cameras on the porch of our cabin, which had a perfect view of the game trail that the lynx had come through yesterday.  Our hopes perked up when an arctic hare hopped through the trail about 10 minutes before the time that the lynx had come through yesterday, but even waiting a half hour, we did not see the lynx, and light was rapidly fading to the point where photography was no longer possible.  

Tomorrow, we take the water taxi back to King Salmon, where Terri and John will catch their flights home.  We will fly to Anchorage and then join our Princess Denali cruise tour.  We will need to check out of the cabin and be at the beach at 9:30 a.m.  We’re hoping it won’t be raining too much then.