I’d set my alarm clock to wake me at 0530 hrs. It was still pitch dark and raining at that hour, but by the time I was ready to go at 0630 hrs, there was plenty of light to paddle my way up to the mouth of Barnard Creek.

Along the way I found this one eagle, who was waiting for high water too, which is when the salmon find it the easiest to get up the creek to spawn.

There were huge salmon jumping all around me, but never when I had my camera focused on them. I could see schools of them swimming beneath the surface of the water. It was actually a little frightening. If several of them jumped while under me, I might be swimming also.

It was important to keep my eye on the water level, because I only had about 15 inches of water under me at times, and I draw about a foot with the little skeg that hangs down. And, the tide was dropping. So, I was constantly looking for deeper water. I finally found a little deeper water area near the shore where the creek enters the cove, and managed to work my way closer to the mouth of the creek.

I was trying to get a shot of an eagle that was just behind a berm at the mouth of the creek, when I spotted a bear!  I could not believe my good fortune! And, judging by the hump on its back, it was a grizzly!!

He headed for the creek, out of sight behind that darn berm. But, I tried to be patient, making sure I had enough water to float, and wasn’t so close to shore that I might be eaten. After what seemed like an eternity, the bear gave up on fishing and headed for some much easier to acquire grass.

Apparently all that fishing tuckered him right out. He figured you can eat grass just as easily sitting down.

He was all comfortable and enjoying his grass, when the crows started cawing like crazy. That got his attention.

Mr. Wolf was in the area looking for a little salmon for breakfast also, and suffered the same lousy fishing luck as Mr. Bear.

He wandered over to Mr. Bear and looked like he wanted to hang out with him.

The crows didn’t like Mr. Wolf one bit, and got right in his face, cawing up a storm.

Mr. Wolf couldn’t be bothered with them and headed back to find Mr. Bear.

About that time, two of Mr. Wolf’s buddies showed up. My eyes just got bigger and bigger. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Mr. Bear, at first didn’t seem too concerned. He just went back to eating grass.

But, then the wolves started inching in closer to Mr. Bear.

Finally, Mr. Bear figured out they were up to no good and took off for the trees. I didn’t get to see the end of the story, but I’m rooting for Mr. Bear.

And I took off for deeper water.