"The Church"

By: Lee Kelley

Another day in paradise, the skies were heavy with rain yet it hadn't started yet. Yes, indeed another wonderful day in paradise and my fishing partner, Gary Hufford and I were headed to a secret fishing spot called the church. I doubt seriously that in twenty years there were more then five different people who ever visited the church with regularity.

Gary and I were heading to my most secret of secret of fishing spots located on Russell Creek just outside of Cold Bay, Alaska. Even though Gary and I have fished hundreds of hours perhaps even thousands of hours together, there were still a few places we haven't fished together yet.

The truck pounded out of Cold Bay. As we passed the four blocks of paved road we headed along the airport toward the bay. As we reached the knoll just out of town we could see Cold Bay and Leonard Harbor shimmering across the bay. There were a few shafts of sun light on the far side of Cold Bay. Then we headed back toward Mt. Frosty traveling at least twenty miles per hour. If we had attempted any more speed I fear the truck would fall apart, after all a Cold Bay Truck is a Cold Bay Truck. The previous day our rental truck nearly left us stranded at the far end of the road system. We both suspected that the truck would be trouble when the rental agent gave us a spare battery and jumper cables. Sure enough our truck failed on the way back from fishing, down and across Russel creek. The spare battery didn't even have a charge. We were forced to negotiate a jump with the only person from town that could get across the creek and give our rental truck a jump. Oh well, that's Cold Bay.

I tracked the down the person who rented us the vehicle and thanked him in my very best ill temper. I wanted to drag him outside and give him a piece of my mind and perhaps my boot. Unfortunately, I never received the true satisfaction that comes with venting about a wrong that was done to you. Our rental agent simply handed me the keys to his truck, apologized, and said there would be no charge for our rental. Dammit, I was looking forward to the challenge of it all and I was abruptly cut short by good customer service. Hufford found it amusing and had remained completely silent through it all.

Oh well we had arrived at a point over looking the river. This is the church. I would lead Huff into the "Church" that he knew very little about. A long time ago a friend and I gave this stretch of the river the name "The Church." When you climb down to the river and looked up you have the feeling that you are in a grand cathedral in Europe. You are alone; save for the company you share. The river has a relaxing and spiritual quality to it. Even with all of this if a person cannot find god in the shear splendor of the Church there was a little something extra.

Next to the river the bank is generally clear and easy to negotiate. Next to the cathedral bank where one has to climb down appears to be a very prominent cross-country ski trail out in the tundra. To the untrained or uninitiated the ski trail looks very much used. The tracks were anywhere from six inches deep to over a foot as the tops of the tundra is where the tracks are deepest.

Before we wondered into The Church I cautioned Gary that we must stop and look down into the Church which stretched a half mile down stream and a quarter of a mile up stream from our present location. "There," "look", there I said pointing down stream. On the opposite bank was one of the priests of the church. A very large and very well feed Alaskan Brown Bear, wallowing around on the tundra at the downstream entrance to the church. We watched for fifteen minutes as the bear began tearing up the tundra in what appeared to be at least a cubic yard at a time, with each grasp of his mighty claws. This bear had parka squirrel on his mind. Never mind that Russel creek was chock full of old dog Salmon and fresh Silver Salmon, this bear wanted a 1 to 2 pound ground squirrel. This bear was willing to dig a hole deep enough to use as a duck blind to get the Parka Squirrel snack that lay just under the ground. We named this bear Brutus because of his shear size. Finally Brutus lumbered down stream and out of the church. The downstream entrance is called the gates of the cathedral while the upstream corner of the Church is referred to as the altar.

The altar is where we intended to fish this day. The river bends around the altar making it a wonderful fishing hole for fresh Silvers. With so many Dog Salmon spawning in the river the fresh Silvers tend to collect in certain holes, the Alter was without a doubt the best spot under the current conditions to catch bright Silvers.

We took another long look at the Gates up through the Pews and around to the Alter. Still no more priests in sight. An interesting note is the Priests in this church are capable of giving anyone the last rights just before the Last Supper, which you may ever attend. "Ok Gary?" Ok we have now stared at every alder, every suspicious hummock, and every rock that could be recognized as a priest, then carefully verified to make sure that they were not. Finally we strap on our 44s' outside of our neoprene waders, I throw a shot gun over my back and grab my camera bag grousing that the video camera would have to stay I had no more room. We were headed toward Alter and Silvers. Knowing we couldn't comfortably haul Silvers and our gear up the bank if we needed to leave before our last communion. We carefully edge down to the halfway point and once again take a very close look up and down the church from the Gates to the Alter all looked quite. So on we move until we arrived at a very large gravel bar; this was the upstream corner of the Altar. For the next twenty minutes or so we caught dog salmon after dog salmon, there were just no Silvers today. Gary and I had a little strategy meeting to see if we wanted to move or leave the church altogether.

There were a number of seagulls upstream and a patch of them down stream. When you are in the Church seagulls act as an early warning system. If one of the Priests of this church begin to move the seagulls get up and make a great fuss. If the Priest is actually feeding in the river seagulls from all over will begin to arrive.

I decided to work the downstream edge of the Alter while Gary remained at the top of the Alter. I had laid my shotgun across the top of my camera bag mid-way between Gary and me. About the time I hooked a bright Silver, a great mass of seagulls began making a lot of racket upstream, they had Gary's full attention. I took a few more steps down river still fighting the salmon when I heard Gary's voice in a very low, nearly a whisper say "Kelley......look behind you." I can tell you I knew exactly what was behind me long before I ever saw it. With my neck hairs standing on end I moved my body and head position slowly around until I stood nearly muzzle to face with one of the younger Priests in the Church. The bear did not seem threatened in anyway with our close proximity, Gary says fifteen feet, I say it was inside of eight feet.

The ears of the young bear probably a relative teenager were up right, his eyes were equal and goal black, the jaw was opened slightly in the way a goofy Lab does. The nose was set it wasn't stretching to the right or the left, up or down, this was a very good sign. The bear and I were squared off muzzle to face and shoulder to shoulder, the bear didn't woof at me, the bear didn't flatten it's ears, nor did he stand up as if to get my scent. At this point I laid my fishing pole down very very gently, very very slowly, and very very deliberately, even though there was still a very lively Silver playing around at the end of my line. Gary had remained very calm and motionless through all of this. After I laid my fishing pole down on the gravel bar the fish still on the line I remained low to the ground, and slowly ever so slowly, began to retreat to my camera bag where my shotgun awaited if the need arose. I still had my 44 but the truth of it is I wasn't going to complicate anything at this point by all the motion that would be necessary to reach and pull out my pistol. Suddenly, with the thought of shooting this bear squarely in my mind with a 44, made me feel terribly inadequate.

During this whole time my partner old Huff observed the most important rule of all when confronted with a bear, and that was, attract no more attention than you already have, do not threaten, do not yell, do not shoot your guns into the air, and above all do not shoot at the bear! All of these rules seemly have exceptions however so far we have met this priest, nothing more, anything less.

This is another good reason to travel with a companion capable of doing the right thing, at the right time, and in the right place. I can tell you, if Gary had panicked in any way or even yelled when he was trying to get my attention, I may have received my last rights and been the Priests last supper. By now I had reached my camera bag, gently I lifted the shotgun off my bag and pulled out my camera...I was able to squeeze one picture off. At the sound of the click and wirr the bear turned abruptly and ran until he was in the center of the river. At this point another group of Seagulls got up just down stream from us. I asked Gary if he had any objections to leaving the Church. He calmly replied that he had got enough religion for one day.

As we climbed back up, we paused to take a breath or two and scanned the Church as even more seagulls were now on the move.

Finally we reached the top pausing once again to scan the Church to see what else may have been lurking around down there. As soon as we zeroed in on the seagulls another one of the Priests showed up, this Priest was heading straight to the alter. With the young Priest across the river staring back at us and another standing on the Alter we decided to go fish farther down stream.

Just as we were getting into the truck a long time Cold Bay friend pulled up and yanked his fishing equipment out of his truck then he wondered over and said how was it? Oh it was great the only problem is the bears. Jerry looked over into the Church and could clearly see four bears heading toward the Alter. Jerry said that he would like to join us down stream.