THE KAMCHATKA BIGHORN SNOW SHEEP AND BIG BROWN BEAR HUNT

1. Index to the Kamchatka Bighorn Snow Sheep and Big Brown Bear hunt
2. Alan Magee and I, Kamchatka hunting partners, arrange to rendezvous in Anchorage, before heading on toward Siberia for the Kamchatka Bighorn Snow Sheep and Big Brown Bear hunt.
3. Launch "Kamchatka-'01" with long flights cross-country and up to the "Great Land"-Alaska, site of my Arctic Brooks Range Hunt a year ago this month, in which my "first ram" made it from the North Slope to the Derwood woods---and so did I.
4. On board Tupelev 154 run by Magadan Air enroute across Vitus Bering's Sea re-connecting the Aleutian Land-Bridge for Hunter-Gatherers of an earlier and more recent era, to arrive at PWK, Petropavlosk, to begin the scarier air transit by vintae Soviet-era helicopter toward the Karnetsky Reserve where we will begin the hunts. Overfly large volcanic cones, arrival in PKC, tour the town of Petropavlosk, then launch road trip to arrive in thermal spa "sanitarium" dacha of Malka for the brief night.
5. Pre-dawn departure from Malka for a long road trip along Central Kamchatka to see foxes cavorting on the road and arrive at Kamchatka River, crossed once by bridge-filled with dead and dying salmon-and once by ferry-along with massive Soviet-era Army trucks, to arrive in Central Kamchatka Village-looking back eighty years as I try six times to buy stamps and post cards; wait to go forward by huge old Soviet-era helicopter. Takeoff over fresh lava fields from volcanoes and arrive at mountain crater rim to set up "TENT"-our base camp for the hunts, with a spotting of an old solitary Kamchatka Big Horn Ram at dusk, after which we have to hold the flapping tent down with tons of rocks.
6. A highly eventful day in the adventure hunting of the Kamchatka-'01: I hike with 14-year-old Slava on the volcanic mountainsides as Alan goes after old ram and shoots it at 440 yards; I the hunt hard with Sergei, seeing bear, bear's den, big craters and spectacular countryside; at 2:00 PM he spots two snow sheep, and we drop down toward the valley where we can overlook them as Victor arrives with walkie-talkie support. At 3:00 PM I recognize that I am seeing a dozen snow sheep, among them big rams, and we begin the two-hour stalk by Sergei and I rappelling down in belay ropes to reach the rams at 4:50 PM. I crawl forward and select furthest standing ram who is blown off the mountain with a single chest shot, as I photograph each of the other (smaller) rams as they run past me. We pose with the magnificent trophy, skin and prepare at 6:30 PM for the 3 ½ hour return climb over the Kamchatka Range four times to return for celebratory toast for a great day on the hunt.
7. A recovery day at TENT in rest, trophy preparation, serial letter and writing in the rain as we pack up for strenuous day of hiking and spike camp preparation tomorrow with full backpacks and "loaded for bear" heading to the Storage River watershed for fishing among other carnivorous fishermen for which we will be hunting.
8. The day to move from sheep hunting to big bear hunting with a spike camp set up in our backpacks, and, as fishermen, to set out after master fishermen gorging on a hundred pounds of salmon per day August 24, 2001. Whoops! Our planned departure for the lower riverbank bear habitat was aborted by a very ugly turn in the weather: the rest day was extended another 24 hours--as was needed--and we return to buttress the tent as I write serial letters.
9. Transition Day: We backpack out alone down the Tumrak Mountain 1200 meters down toward the Storage River into the trees and heavy vegetation and hordes of mosquitoes in an arduous trek, leaving our base camp at "TENT" with cook, translator and helpers, picking up camping supplies at "SPIK" and arriving exhausted at our spike camp "DOM-1": my greeting at my tent is a sow brown bear with twin cubs standing upright and peering at me through the blueberries she had previously had to herself.
10. Score! A big day which begins with a slog across the sucking silt of the Storage River in hip boots, to finally arrive on the opposite bank after wading through dying salmon to follow a large dark bear, whom I photograph at only 185 meters as he swims the river-a trophy in my sights that I let get away. Sergei and I then stalk a chocolate brown bear combing the boulder-filled glacial slopes for blueberries; ay 185 meters, it stood up with its hump bristling and its cervical spine snapped, never knowing what hit him. As we go forward to inspect the "normal bear", Sergei leaves to retrieve his backpack as I strip to try to dry out from the dunking. For an hour, I watch a monster three-meter trophy bear filter-feeding blueberries advancing in my direction. When Sergei returns and spots what I have been watching, he dismisses my smaller bear and radios Victor who also suggests I shoot the big bear. I get on boots and stalk closer with rifle and camera-at 120 meters, I shoot five times---with the camera! I return and point to "my trophy" and we begin preparing the rug-to-be, laboriously lugging back across the Storage River and turning in for the night into he tent-both Alan and I having taken average bears, but on an ethical fair chase hunt for this trophy.
11. A day of epiphanies: I sit on steep mountainslopes, watching fourteen brown bears, catching salmon, "combining" blueberries, and a sow with cubs chasing away a big boar bear through the river-as I write my serial letters about the profligate abundance of the feast/famine waste of this pristine wilderness-as I am conserving both salmon and bears to die of "natural causes" unobserved; retreat to spike camp tent in heavy rain and wind-which we later find out has destroyed the base camp at "TENT" on Tumrak Mountain.
    
12. We get up in high wind at spike camp to pack up for later crossing of the Storage River when we hear the sound of the helicopter making an early run at the mountaintop base camp to evacuate our team; we rush across the swollen river heavily loaded through the sinking silt, to rendezvous with riverbank chopper; we lift off around the spectacular new-fallen snow on the mountains, spotting snow sheep on the hillsides and the imposing Avacha Volcano and fresh lava flows on return to the village of Kozurevsk skipped over by a century. Rendezvous with our huge tundra locomotive "bus/truck" to ride out to the Kamchatka River ferry, then, from Milkhaya and Malka, finding "no room in the inn" wherever we tried to stay, we make a run for it all the way to Hotel Petropavlosk to check in at 2:00 AM to unpack.
13. Regrouping day in Petropavlosk: I go to mail all of my serial letters and cards in reconstructed post office, lunch in Red Fox Inn, see environs of Petropavlosk, get bureaucratic clearance of the sheep skin and trophies from apparatchiks' offices then suffer a total loss after a two-hour report home from the Internet Café that simply loses the finished transmission at "Send." We go for Azerbaijani shish kebab, and tour the thermal hot springs outside Petropavlosk at the "Blue Lagoon" under the three towering volcanic cones.
14. Our final and farewell day in Petropavlosk before leaving Kamchatka early on the following morning-to arrive by a special Magadan Air charter in Anchorage (are you ready to be confused?) six hours earlier than takeoff on August 31st--the same day! See a few more sights and museums and farewell dinner with our team.
    

Return to Journal Index