First Bears

Mt. Bike 15 miles
Run 12 miles

It's no secret, there are a lot of bears in Alaska. Juneau is no exception. In two months here last fall before winter hit I probably saw 20 or so of them. This spring though they've been slow to appear after Juneau's snowiest winter on record. For about 3 weeks now I've been hearing stories around town of people starting to see a few bears, but I saw my first one today. Two of them in fact. Nothing too exciting. They were several hundred yards away, across a large creek, but in Alaska the first bear of the season feels like a turning point. It really makes it feel like summer. Or at least that is the way it has felt for the two years that I've lived in Alaska. When I lived in Utah it was always the first rafting trip of the season that made it feel like summer, even though this was often in late March or early April. When I lived in upstate New York it was always the first warm, humid night that made it feel like summer, usually sometime in mid to late May. Here though, it's either the first bear or the first lupine blooms... both of which have occurred for me in the past 3 days. I got a little sunburnt this weekend too... that also has a way of making it feel like summer.