Baked Alaska
Part 5: Ketchikan
A week later,
in port for gusty weather in Ketchikan, I hoped my $300
bear-watching trip would be canceled. This once-in-a-lifetime
impulse governs all your purchases in Alaska--when will
you ever be this far away again?
Unfortunately
they didn't cancel. After another white-knuckle flight in
a seaplane, we took a walk through a salmon hatchery, leaving
us only half an hour for bear viewing.
We stood in
freezing drizzle watching dying salmon leap from the river.
It was beautiful in a depressing way. Finally,
just as we started to walk back to the landing, a black
bear ambled out of the woods and grabbed a fish in each
paw. Click click click--the whir of shutters.
Then, as quickly
as she'd appeared, the bear returned to the woods and we
to our seaplane.
