Wrangell, Anan Bear Observatory

It is raining so we wore our rain boots and brought our raingear. We want to be able to sit outside on the deck and watch the bears. We get the knock on the boat to get on the Alaska Vistas boat at about 8:30 AM. We then head out of the harbour and around to a dock facing the channel for boarding. First thing everyone does is head up the dock to get a latte. We then boarded and found out that there were only five of us a boat which held over ten. I got to sit up in front with the driver. This is one of those smallish aluminum jet boats that have a draft of two feet at idle and 4 inches when it is up on a plane. The trip to Anan took about an hour. We stopped when I saw the puff from a whale but he never showed himself again. At Anan there is no dock, we just have to pull up close to the muddy shore and get off the boat from a ladder which comes down from the bow. It is close to low tide so that apparently makes this more difficult. We are very glad of the boots. There is one outhouse here and one by the observatory. Both are exposed to possible bear visits so one never goes off alone. We first has a small talk from a ranger about the area and what we are about to see. We are allowed to bring almost anything with us in our backpacks but NO FOOD. Water bottle was OK. By this time we are expecting to see a bear around every corner and hanging from the trees. Unfortunately this was not to be. After a moderately strenuous walk to the observatory through spectacular rainforest, the decks above Anan Creek emerge. We didn’t see a bear at all for about 30 minutes. Then we saw a black, furry head sticking out from between two boulders in the creek. The water is madly rushing here and looks to be a milky, caramel color. It is hard to see any salmon in the water but we see one jumping frequently. Eventually we saw a total of three black bears and no brown bears. We got home from there about 2 PM. I went for a walk to the end of town and saw some children selling stones at tables that they set up by the ferry terminal. They stones all held a piece of raw garnet. Following is information about the garnets from the local paper;
"Why the Garnet Stands? -- In the streets of Wrangell, you sometimes encounter kids selling garnets the way children other places sell lemonade. The gems come from the Garnet Ledge, near the mouth of the Stikine River, a mine that is still productive recreationally 130 years after its discovery. A visit to the mine isn't worth the effort for most travelers, but the story is interesting. The ledge was mined commercially from 1907 to 1936 by the first all-woman corporation in the nation, a group of investors from Minneapolis. Its current ownership is unusual, too: A 1962 deed gave the mine to all the children of Wrangell, which is interpreted to mean that only children have the right to remove the stones. You can get a water taxi out there, but take a Wrangell child along if you intend to take garnets. Of course, it's easier simply to buy garnets from a kid at a card table in the street." http://www.wrangell.com/visitors/attractions/sightseeing/garnet/index.html