Kodiak Courage

JAMMED IN A DE HAVILAND BEAVER, the Alaska packhorse of bush planes, we circled the Ayakulik River before landing. My friend shouted, “Hey look, a moose,” pointing at a moving brown mass. “There are no moose on Kodiak Island,” our pilot reminded us. It was a brown bear, scrambling into the alder bushes, spooked by our plane swinging low over the water. Our faux pas should have been the first clue how the next 36 hours would go.

Fun fact: There are about 3,500 brown bears on Kodiak Island—a density of about .7 bears