What is your purpose?

I feel the question needed to be asked is, “Why do you want to know?”

If looking to fill a zoom photo frame with a grizzly’s eyeball, go to a zoo. If doing a macho Hemmingway thing … as running with the bulls… go to Spain.

If, however, you want to close the distance between seeing, and being ...wildlife viewing for the thrill of connecting to mother earth... you need to recognize that “brother bear” has a dignity that should not be violated.

I, a long time ago, delegated bears …. in the Indian fashion… to be my spirit animal. Part of it has to do with my name, Barry. Part because I enjoy the thought of a bear wondering over the countryside as a symbol (much like the canary in a coal mine) that we haven’t totally destroyed our world…. yet.

At our cabin at Bowser Creek, in the heart of the Alaska Range, west of Denali, I have black bears visiting every so often sneak a peek through my window at the strange creatures on display. They have been doing so for 25 years, without breaking the glass in their curiosity. The windows are shuttered whenever I am not in residence, for they surely would go after my food cache …not understanding property rights, etc.

I love flying out to the cabin (120 air miles in a bush plane) to visit a land more exciting than any novel or movie. I have been doing so since the summer of 1968, and have yet to have a unhappy experience wildlife viewing. (continued next page)