July 14

Micah seated ahead of me in a double kayak as we paddle into the Bartlett estuary and approach Bartlett River.


Jayden with his salmon.


The boys called to us from a log on our riverbank.


Our ritual was often to have a campfire by the river in the evening. After the 4th of July this included the use of firecrackers to blow cans in the air, or explode a cardboard boat.


The grandsons in an airplane that crashed in the forest back in 1957


The boys and Jon heading for the airplane to go home.

The boys left for home the evening of the 12th. The two weeks flew by way too fast. The next morning we looked at the two beds where they slept and were both misty eyed. During their stay we hiked, kayaked, fished, and then repeated all those activities several times. Two of them caught their first fish ever. We saw moose on several occasions, but no bears, which may be a good thing. For me the highlight was kayaking into Bartlett River with the grandsons. One leaves the National Park lodge and in 20 minutes is surrounded by spectacular wilderness and what has been called perhaps the best kayaking in the west. High tide (necessary to get in and out of a shallow area) was late so we had the boys out until 11PM. That seems late to most of you. Up here there it still plenty of daylight.

We staggered the taking of boys out in kayaks. At ten years old they don’t have the fortitude to paddle long distances. With Jay up front in a two-seater kayak at the entrance to Bartlett Cove whales were blowing in the distance, and small fish were jumping out of the water. I suspected a predatory fish was chasing them and when Jayden cast he got a nice hit on the first try. The fish was scrappy and the two of us took about ten minutes getting it in. Jay was on cloud nine about his first salmon. From there we paddled over to Bartlett River and Jayden was soon catching Dolly Varden trout one after the other. We had three of those trout for dinner the next night. They were nice sized trout evidenced by the fact three fed seven people. There are still two in the freezer, along with his Salmon filets. We took the other two boys out the next night expecting the same results. Unfortunately that didn’t work out at all. We only had one fish on the line, and that one broke free after giving Micah a fight.

Jon Brawley came up from Portland in the middle of the grandson’s stay. We accumulated about two days work on the cabin. The rest of the time was spent…. Guess what... hiking, fishing, and kayaking. Jon seemed to have a great time and the area really grew on him.

The morning after they all left a porcupine waddled past between cabin and the 5th wheel. That was an animal they did not get to see. The boys became more relaxed about wandering the area, much to our concern. Bears and moose seemed to not be around. But two nights ago we were awakened by neighborhood dogs barking. That usually means a bear is in the area. A nearby neighbor got up to see what his dog was barking about and witnessed a confrontation between a brown (grizzly) bear and a moose on the drive outside his house. The bear apparently wanted moose calf for dinner and mama moose wasn’t having any part of it. Eventually she chased the bear off. That all happened about 300 yards from our place. Then this morning I saw a lot of unusual wave activity in the water on the river. After high tide receded I realized why. The Pink Salmon run had begun. This year looks to be a healthy run. The river by our bank is black with salmon. They will rest in the shallows until next incoming tide and then move higher up-river. The downside is once they are spawned out they will die and the whole area will stink for a while, which brings in bears. But I wish he boys could have seen the actual run. It is hard to imagine salmon so thick at times one can almost imagine walking on them.