Our friends Megan and Sven W. had arrived the day before with their two boys, and Megan's sister and her family (fresh from NY state) in tow. Unfortunately, the fishing was exceptionally sparse. It's not entirely clear from the above pictures, but as Sven tells us, the water was quite low for this time of year, probably making it difficult for the fish (mainly silver salmon and some trout) to make it upstream. And though it seems like there were a lot of people, Sven says it's nothing compared to when the fishing is really hot, people being side by side with barely any casting room.As exciting as it might be for some, there were a few bear sightings, but thankfully not by me. One morning, Drew and Sven saw a mother bear and her cub on the other side of the river. Further up is one of the falls where they take all the well-known pictures of bears catching salmon in mid-jump. I had thought about taking the girls up there to hike, but I was warned that it's rather close up there with trees and bushes very near the trail and little breathing room in terms of coming up on bears unawares. We have bear spray, but I get the impression you have to be right up in the bear's face, get it full on in the eyes, for the stuff to be effective. If we do anymore of the this outdoorsy stuff, I think we're going to need to get some bear bells and an air horn.
The fireweed is in bloom now, fields and fields of the stuff growing along the side of the road. I've heard you can make teas and jelly from the flowers, but maybe when the girls are older I can get them to help harvest. These were growing alongside our campsite at the RR. They're certainly one of my favorites, right below poppies.
