Today was a very special day. I took a cab to the Alaska Bear Adventures hangar to take off in a Cessna 206 headed to Katmai National Park. The Cessna 206 only carries 4 passengers and the pilot and possible a co-pilot. It is cold, not pressurized, and quite the experience. It took 1.5 hours to get to Katmai NP from Homer; we were hiking through several river streams with strong currents, through slippery mud, through marsh grass, etc. in order to see the grizzly bears. These grizzlies do not have any experience with people except naturalist pilots specially trained to take tourists on this adventure. The two grizzly bears I saw could have cared less that we were in their territory. That is because they have not had any bad experiences (yet) with the human race. One woman apparently got too close and got mauled by an unhappy grizzly. She had to be airlifted to Anchorage. But it was totally her fault, and she broke all rules she had agreed to abide by. I got quite a few pictures of one grizzly and also an eagle. It was truly an exercise in trekking in an unfamiliar place with stream currents, etc. Mount Douglas set a pretty amazing backdrop to our photos. It took another 1.5 hours to fly back by instrument rating in pure white clouds the entire time! I was glad to land safely after that experience of a lifetime!!!!