Where the Grizzlies Roam

BY THE TIME BIG BEAR and Slightly Smaller Big Bear fought, so much had already happened.

We had taken a dramatic floatplane ride from the small island town of Kodiak, Alaska, across Shelikof Strait to Katmai National Park & Preserve, on the Alaska Peninsula. Our pilot was Jerry Borshard, resplendent in a newsboy cap and scraggy red beard. He looked like the kindly proprietor of a bike shop. The seven courageous members of our tour group were in search of bears, on the Great Alaskan Grizzly Encounter, a five-day cruise around the park organised by Natural Habitat Adventures. The engine droned, and someone asked Jerry if he had seen anything spectacular on his flights into and out of Katmai.

“Not really,” said Jerry through his mic.