The day before my wedding, my wife-to-be and I arranged a bit of fun for some of our visiting family members. My friend, Mike, has been a rafting guide on the Mendenhall River for years, and through him, we managed to score a rafting trip.

Starting at the terminus of the Mendenhall Glacier, the trip winds just a few miles down the river. Instead of accompanying them, I was instead planning to go hiking up the same glacier with my groomsmen. As everyone piled into the raft, I snapped a few pictures with my digital camera – this one as they were beginning a sweep towards the glacier before turning and heading for the rapids.

I didn’t know it at the time, but apparently that was the same day of a rare glacier bear sighting. Mike later told me that though the Juneau Empire got better pictures, I should be the one credited with the first photograph because of this picture. Of course, even when shown in all its 3-Megapixel glory, the bear still only appears as a gray, multi-pixel blob on the left shoreline. Not much proof, if you ask me.

Despite the lack of a recognizable glacier bear, I do still like this snapshot.