The two weeks I just spent with Kodiak Brown Bears on Kodiak Island in Alaska were the most memorable two weeks I’ve spent in a long, long time. We arrived in the town of Kodiak on Monday, May 16 and flew into Rohrer Bear Camp on Willy’s Beaver on Tuesday morning. The Beaver is a pontoon boat so hip boots are the order of the day when deplaning and stepping down into the water. For that matter, we wore hip boots every day watching bears because getting in and out of the boats and watching bears required wading through water. Sometimes, we stood ankle deep in water, tripods deployed, watching those big Kodiak Browns across a sandbar. The tides were exceptionally high the first several days of our first week and the grassy flats where we watched bears last year were covered with water much of the time. By 2 PM that first afternoon we were on the boats with our guides Hiram and Chris heading across Uganik Bay and up the Uganik River to the flats in search of bears. We had to climb a berm because water covered the flats and we surveyed the area waiting for bears. One finally appeared on the gravel beach and slowly made its way toward us. It approached, grew larger in our viewfinders, climbed a log near us and continued on its way. It was a great start to a sensational trip!