Day 25: Chilkoot Lake & more 'Bear' than we would like

8.6.2024

We sleep in - at least try to, since the street behind our camper is well frequented from 5 AM. I am wide awake by 6:30 and use the time for internet research. We won't have Wi-Fi again until we reach Whitehorse, since my eSim has refused to work since Stewart. However, I probably wouldn't have had any phone coverage until Whitehorse anyway. 

We leave the Hitch RV Park under blue skies and sunshine around 11 AM and drive to Chilkoot Lake. 

In the harbor lies the Norwegian Sun and Haines is overrun by cruise tourists. Those not remaining in Haines are riding in groups or individually on bicycles to Chilkoot Lake.

We reach the campground at 11:30 and hope for a nice site - and we are lucky: there are 4 sites with a lake view and indeed one of them is free: number 17!

We settle on the site, thrilled that our picnic site is a bit lower by the lake with a view of the lake and waterfall. 

We walk back to the information boards, where the payment machine for the campground is located. Card payment only! You don’t need to specify the site, just the license plate, name, and date. 

I buy our permit for today and wait for my husband, who wants to check out the day use area a few meters further. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a large dog on the table at site 3 next to me. Without thinking, I walk over to the site, and suddenly a bear comes towards me 😱😱😱

Shock paralysis - it seems equally surprised as I am. I take a step back, scream 'Bear', and it also backs away into the bushes, then peeks around the corner and calmly munches on berries by the roadside before crossing the street into our neighbor’s site and raiding the outdoor belongings of the tent campers 😱 

They apparently left empty coffee mugs and wrappers outside, which attracted the bear. The Canadian from the site across jogs to the campsite and yells at the bear, armed with bear spray. The bear makes a run for it and rustles through the bushes below the sites into our site 😱😱😱

Hopefully our son stays put in the camper and doesn’t open the door!!!

The park ranger assistant drives right towards us and we point out the 'big' bear to her. She checks and tells me that this is a 'youngster', a 'baby', maybe a year old. We shouldn’t be afraid; he is just on an exploration tour. However, we should not leave food outside and be cautious by making loud noises to scare the bear away. As if the little bear heard the word 'food', he comes out of the bushes and starts rummaging in the trash can right in front of our site. Great, now I know why the site was empty 🤣

He’s trying to overturn the container, but it doesn’t work as it is chained to the concrete platform it stands on. 

The Canadians with bear spray eventually scare him off. 

Ok, if THAT was a grizzly 'baby', I definitely don’t want to meet the mama today...

After the initial shock, we walk around the campground, look for the restroom, and gather firewood (there is neither free wood nor anything to buy), which has been left behind in the adjacent empty sites.  We then see the bear in the loop at site 25, where he plunders another tent site. Here he is more successful as the campers have left all sorts of things on the table, though he can't open the bear-proof boxes; he catapults them into the corner and stands on the table while sweeping everything off. Ouch! From a safe distance, we observe his rampage and then watch as he disappears into the woods. Crazy!!!! A bear in the campground in broad daylight! 

The tent campers will be shocked when they come back and hopefully get some peace from the park ranger. The Canadian from across our site tells us that he has been here for a week and that the bear has been on the rampage in the campground for the third time. If the campers continue to leave their stuff out, the bear will soon be a problem bear... 

We explore the really small day-use area (we wouldn't have been able to park the camper here even if we hadn't wanted to go to the campground) and come across a family that has cycled the nearly 20 km from the cruise ship Norwegian Sun. 

They are horrified that there is 'only' a viewpoint here, no restaurant, no shop, and they have neither food nor drink with them 😯 Hmm, the cruise organizers might want to mention this before they send their guests off on 20 km long bike tours (one way!).

The family tells us they saw a bear fishing for salmon on the way by the river - among many fishermen 😱 

Wow, this just keeps getting better 😅 

We cook pasta in the camper and then walk the 1.5 km stretch along the road parallel to the river to the bridge. 

As we start at the day-use area, I see a head poking out of the lake. A seal!? In the lake??? How did it get here!? It disappears underwater and then comes back up towards the river and swims down the river.

We follow it, see several bald eagles sitting in the trees by the river, but no bears. 

At the dam, where the salmon are prevented from continuing swimming during the counting, the seal is left behind. It definitely cannot get through the narrow gap where the salmon are supposed to swim to be counted. 

We walk along the road to the bridge where you can see the sea and see 5 more seals swimming in the river, among the fly fishermen. 

Fishing seems to be a national sport here. The whole river is full of anglers/fly fishermen.

After about 2 hours without a bear, we walk back to the campground. My husband is not comfortable with all the bear 'poo' we see next to and on the road. We make ourselves comfortable on our bench with a lake view and hear the alarm horn multiple times in the loop above us - the bear is running around here, but he no longer approaches us.

The campground is fully occupied since 4 PM, the last campers are making their rounds at 6 PM, and afterwards it becomes quiet. We set our chairs on our site and decide to drive the camper to the road for bear viewing. When we arrive at the fish ladder, a group of observers with huge cameras and tripods are already gathered above the fish ladder, while another group is below at the information boards. We find a parking spot below and sit on the wall by the information boards. We learn that a grizzly bear with cubs was just here. 

Darn, we just missed it. We wait about an hour, staring intently at the opposite shore, but nothing happens. Some bald eagles are circling in front of us and the salmon are jumping since access to the river above the fish ladder is closed. The salmon are counted individually, and the counting will resume tomorrow morning. 

Two men are working on the fish ladder; it looks like they are checking and repairing it, as one of them is standing in the water. Suddenly there's a shout, and the worker runs over the fish bridge and screams!? 

We see a small grizzly running back into the woods from the bridge across the road, with a salmon in his mouth that he stole from the men on the bridge (they had pulled out 1-2 dead salmon and laid them on the bridge). 

Super, everyone was looking the other way, and nobody noticed the cheeky bear!!! We see him sitting in the woods from the road, eating his fish.

We return to the campground and eat burgers - again from the pan, as the fire pit has no grill rack, and besides, I’m not comfortable grilling something for the bear.

After dinner, the camp host comes by and explains to us that the campground has been having a problem with a 'problem bear' for the past 2 weeks, which makes the campsites unsafe at any time of the day, with or without people. He’s not afraid and won’t be scared off by alarms or bear spray. Last week, he scared a family of seven away from their breakfast table and then ransacked everything. 

Since he was out again today, the host gives us the option to stay or move our permit to Chilkat SP. He has already urgently advised the tent campers to leave the campground, as it is not safe. The bear had even attacked him last week, despite bear spray 😱😱😱

When asked what the ranger would do with the problem bear, the host just shrugs. 

Ok, I understand. That the bear is causing trouble here and can’t be scared off anymore, even attacking people, is probably his death sentence 😞

And he is still so small....😳😭

We will still stay. Our campsite is right by the lake, and many campsites are around us; the bear seems to be causing trouble in the loop, directly in the woods. There we at least hear the alarms continuously. 

Two tent campers and two campers actually leave the campground. With mixed feelings, we sit outside by the campfire until 9 PM. We don’t see any more bears, and we don’t hear the horns from the loop anymore; instead, we decide to stay another day since we like the site so much.🥰