My family and went fishing on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on a little land bridge in between the Upper and Lower 6 Mile Lakes. The road separates the two lakes and creates a great place for fishermen to hang out and fish for trout during the spring and early summer and a fantastic place to see Chinook Salmon return to spawn during the late summer. This time of year the trout fishing is a lot of fun and this particular day both sides of the road had 5-10 fishermen having a great time catching these spunky little fish.

In our family we have two avid fishermen, the manchild and the mini-manchild (aka my hubs and son), my daughter and I generally go along to watch for wildlife and explore the shores. This day I was relaxing in the back of my truck when I noticed a big black dot waddling down the road behind all these fishermen, shortly after spotting this the manchild spotted a second one and thus began our little adventure with the bears we named Bonnie & Clyde.

Introducing Bonnie & Clyde!

                              Bonnie felt that the cars should get in line with her for the fish!

At first most all the fishermen did just what we are taught, made lots of noise and tried to scare the bears into going another direction and after someone drove up the road honking their horn we thought that maybe they had been scared away and everyone went back to fishing. But we soon learned that these bears were determined. Everyone went about fishing again until Bonnie popped up directly behind a line of fisherman, successfully startling both the fishermen and Bonnie bear. Fishermen scattered and Bonnie ran over the road and up the hill on the other side and disappearing into the woods.

This left Clyde lingering in the woods that Bonnie had originally emerged from, about the time Bonnie disappeared into the woods I heard branches being crunched and sure enough Clyde emerged from the woods but he chose a different route, he decided to swim across one of the lakes to get around the hoards of humans.

Clyde decided a quick dip was the way to avoid all the crazies with two legs.

After his little dip he gave me a great photo opportunity when he passed between a Danger sign and a Caution sign. I couldn't help but get a quick shot.

We all went back to fishing and figured it was the end of it. But just a short time later Clyde decided he needed to recross the lake in order to get back together with Bonnie. He startled a poor family with small kids but made sure and stay clear of all of us while trying to get back together with his buddy.

B131Just a bear taking a swim.

Clyde was one determined bear.

He finally managed to get on the same side as Bonnie and they both took off for parts unknown, or at least that is what we thought. My family and I took off to look for a few things and made a stop in the Upper campground at Otter Lake. All of the sudden parents and children were going crazy. I stopped the car to figure out what was going on and low and behold we see our old friends Bonnie and Clyde. They were causing all kinds of a ruckus! Just a quickly as they appeared they disappeared into the woods, probably annoyed to find more two legged, noisy creatures. We headed home after this so I am hoping they moved on to a quieter area. But I have a feeling they went on to causing trouble some where else, just like their name sakes.

I have to say that these two characters helped make for a very memorable fishing trip.