Bear in the Yard! Bears Wandering Lowell Point

We had some excitement over Memorial Day weekend, and it was a great reminder to us all that we live among wild animals here in Alaska. Guests will often ask about moose in our area, and we can comfortably say that you can see moose in Seward, but they don’t live on Lowell Point. This small peninsula is surrounded by such steep mountain sides that it isn’t hospitable to those creatures. Bears on the other had, both Black and Brown, are known to frequent our area, and we received such a visit this weekend. Sunday morning my husband popped his head into my office to say there was a black bear running around and that he had just walked down Beach Drive. I didn’t think much about it. There were tons of people all around at 10 am and I didn’t figure he’d be headed our way. Paul then took off for the builder supply and I went back to paperwork. The loud blare of the taxi horn caused me to look up in time to see a beautiful, large black bear sort of gallop across the road in front of the taxi and then….wait! He headed right up our driveway towards the parking area where some guests had just been loading luggage into their car. Suddenly I’m like a chicken without my head running around my office – grab the phone, grab the camera, run to the window. Taking pictures with my Blackberry in one hand and calling guest rooms with my cell phone in the other, running from window to window tracking his progress and trying to reach guests to warn them. The bear just sort of shuffuled along the way they will, not in any hurry. His expression was one of curiosity, checking out our progress on our “summer house” and then the front of the Heron’s Roost – his attitude seemed to convey “huh, you’ve done a lot since I was by here in the fall.” The thing about a black bear is that they will mess with you if they feel like it, and they are unpredictable; where as a brown bear really doesn’t want to have anything to do with you. This guy moseyed right along, but he or his companion, sibling or friend was all around and through today also. That won’t last long; sadly someone will kill him if he or they keep this up. They are too threatening to most people, and seriously – we can’t have them walking among us. Moose, yes. Bears, no. Until further notice, be on your toes!