In the summer of 2023, I journeyed south, to McNeil River, farther than I’ve ever traveled to see any animal, let alone bears. For most of my life along Alaska’s Kobuk River, bears showed up at the door of our sod home, or out on the tundra, or we crossed trails when I was hunting for meat or photographs.
This trip was different, and like many things nowadays started with an email. A woman named Beth whom I’d never met wrote with an amazing offer—like winning a lottery—inviting me to visit McNeil River State Game Sanctuary.
“Where’s that?” I replied. I knew I was supposed to know, but didn’t and don’t like googling. I thanked her, but suggested she had the wrong guy. “I’m a homeboy and a hermit. Every chance I get I want to learn more about my home, the Arctic. And I have inner ear problems, I don’t like flying.”
Well, McNeil is home to the largest known gathering of brown bears,
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