There are bears on the tundra. Big black grizzly bears. They eat bugs and tundra berries, and when they can get them, fish. They mostly stick to themselves, avoid people at all costs, and mostly come out late at night or early in the morning. They are creatures of habit and tend to walk the same beat, so to speak, each day.
This summer, a big black grizzly walked along the high water mark just off the bluff each morning around 5:00am. When the kids and I would go walking on the beach after breakfast, we’d often see his footprints in the sand.
Kato was fond of pointing them out.
He was matter-of-fact about it, clinical and dispassionate. Just a bear paw print. Nothing to fear.
After all, his mother is a Behr, and she’s not so bad.
