My first week at Brooks Camp

On May 18, we flew from King Salmon, AK to our new home at Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park. The day was beautiful, so the flight was amazing! I flew with two co-workers and the pilot, and since I guessed the number closest to the pilot's number, I got to sit up front in the passenger seat! We flew in the Beaver, a great little float plane. We took off from the Naknek River and landed in Naknek Lake (the fourth largest lake in Alaska). The scenery here is more beautiful than I imagined. Brooks Camp is on Naknek Lake where the Brooks River empties into it. To the east of us is the Aleutian Range with huge, beautiful snow-capped peaks, and beyond those moutains is Shelikoff Strait (the Pacific Ocean). To the north, west, and south of Brooks Camp is pretty much all water - Naknek and Brooks Lakes. The camp is great. I live in a tent-frame cabin. It's very simple but very cozy. My roommate, Katie, and I have to run out to the circuit breaker box a few times a day to re-set power. It's fun! We have a full kitchen with running water and a space heater. The bathroom is about a 60 yard walk from the cabin. All of the rangers live close to each other, so we have a fun little community. On Friday night we had our first potluck of the season.

On Wednesday morning I saw my first brown bears! I walked out onto the beach of Naknek Lake, and there were four bears playing on the beach about 100 yards away. They started running towards me, so I just backed away slowly. They continued running past me, playing and wrestling with one another. It was very exciting! Yesterday, a few co-workers and I went for hike up Dumpling Mountain, a mountain just right next to camp. It was probably one of the most scenic hikes of my life. We had a great view of some of the park, and I really saw how huge Katmai is! We did not see any bears, but we did count about 10 bear dens on the mountainside.

I am really loving life here. A few times this week I felt like I was back in Nicaragua because of the simplicity of life here, and that made me very happy!