This is a painting of a scene I saw acted out on a river in the Katmai area of Alaska. Together with my wife Clarissa I spent several months backpacking in some of Alaska's wildest country. Bears were common and everywhere. We saw bears every day, sometimes several times a day while hiking along mountain ridges and down remote Alaskan river valleys. However the weather was really frustrating and more often than not it was raining during bear encounters. The good news for us was that we had nailed the timing of our visit because all the streams and rivers were overflowing with spawning salmon. What I loved about Alaska was that if you wanted to go and get yourself killed on some remote mountain range - you didn't need anyones permission to do so. No nanny state.

.