Our first order of business was actually to get prepared to deal with Grizzly Bears. Our guide issued each of us a can of bear spray on a belt which we wore the entire time we were in both parks. The can came on a belt which we put on over our pants. I felt like a gunslinger from the old west. First, however, she had each of us take a turn at spraying a can so that we would have a good idea of the distance and spread of the spray. You can see Vicky taking her turn in the first photo and me in the second photo. Touche’.

Next for us was setting up our sleeping tents. You can see our tent in the next photo. Our tent is on the left and Andrew and April’s is on the right. We placed our tents a good distance from the camp tent to be well away from all food and odors.

Our camp tent is in the next photo. You can also get an idea of where we were camped. This is taken from the gravel bar in the river. Our sleeping tents are out of the photo to the right. Our camp tent had the camp stove and food table and other assorted gear. When it rained, we ate our meals inside the camp tent.

On a side note, our first hike was up the ridge that is on the left side of our camp in the above photo.

You can see our view from in front of the camp tent in the next photo. You can also note that it was a short distance from where our planes landed.

All of the ground was permafrost. The top was extremely soft and covered with mosses, lichens, liverworts, and all sorts of plants, and perhaps more than anything else, with blueberries. Most of the red colored plants are blueberries which still had plenty of berries on them. The point of the last photo is that my chair toppled over, due to the very soft ground. But it was like landing on a twelve inch foam mattress, hence the smile on my face.