Highlights: Brown Bears - a mom & her cub!!!
Bonus Highlight: keeping with our theme of a momma and her offspring, as well as the name of the bay we anchored in this evening - our daughter Sarah, gave birth to baby James Augustine Steinbrecher on June 27th! James' birthday may not align to the date of this blog, but hey, news travels slowly in the Alaskan wilderness!
Little James is 7 lb. and 20" long, and perfect as can be. Sarah is Superwoman, delivering James at 3:35am and returning home less than 4 hours later, as though she had just stepped out to the local Starbucks to get a latte. Amazing! In honor of Sarah, husband Andrew, baby James, and their three daughters Gabbie, Catherine, and Lydia, here are a few pictures of this wonderful family. Peggy and Mark could not be more proud as parents and grandparents (now with two grandsons and five granddaughters, and granddaughter #6 due upon our return later this summer)! We don't want this trip of a lifetime to end, but we also cannot wait to meet baby James in August!
Welcome to the world, James Augustine Steinbrecher!
Sister Baby Bumps: Sisters Sarah and Emily - picture on the left is taken just 3 hours before giving birth; picture on the right is just 7 hours later, already home!
Roughly 95% of all Brown Bears in the U.S. reside in Alaska, and on some of the islands and smaller towns the Brown Bear population far exceeds the human population!
Remarkably, this Brown Bear Cub was born much smaller than newborn baby James. A typical Brown Bear Cub birth weight is around 1 lb. and about 10" long (compared to James at 7 lb. and 20" long). But then the bear cub will grow exponentially compared to little James. The cub photographed below is likely around 2 to 4 years old, and perhaps 200 to 300 lb. A female will grow to 500 to 900 lb., and a male will grow to 800 to 1,200 lb. By contrast, James will likely grow to 150 to 180 lb.
We saw a lot of deer and eagle today too, but the Brown Bears were today's star attraction...
Stern tie anchorage at Baby Bear Bay...
Using the SUP Board as a kayak (w/strap-in seat), I can bring my camera as the board is much more stable as a kayak than the higher center of gravity as a SUP board...
Moxie is comfortable either way, or rather, any way to get on the water. This is Moxie's "happy place" - does she look relaxed?
Bird's eye view of Baby Bear Bay...
Seaquel's "fleet", what Glen refers to as our little "Navy"! We love to have a variety of means to get off the boat to explore, and for a relatively small boat, the ability to carry an easy-to-deploy dinghy off the stern coupled with multiple kayak/SUP board on the sport racks atop the cabin is one of the attributes we treasure in the design of this Ranger Tug...
Wide angle view of Baby Bear Bay...
We found lots of large bear scat in the grass above the high tide mark in Baby Bear Bay..
Looking across to the beach at Baby Bear Bay where we saw lots of bear scat, we kept scanning for signs of bear with our binoculars, but did not see any activity...
Moxie gets a much-needed brushing at Baby Bear...
We had some luck catching Dungeness Crab at Baby Bear, but Ollie kept getting these strange and spindly "Spider" crabs, also known as "Kelp" crab or "Majid" crab.
Another exhilarating day, finally viewing the elusive Coastal Brown Bear. And what a treat to see a momma bear with its cub, with a safe view from the boat. Truly a day to appreciate new life, and welcome our latest grandson to the world!
~Mark
Keep this up and I'll be convinced to make the trip of a life time as well. That you.
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