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 AN OTHER 24 HOURS--AS WAS NEEDED--
AND WE RETURN TO BUTTRESS THE TENT AS I WRITE SERIAL LETTERS
OUR "REST DAY' BECOMES TWO
BECAUSE OF A SEVERE "WEATHER WAIT"
We all celebrated into the night despite my weariness, and made plans to spend one full day in camp recovering from the heavy trek we had just come through. There would also be time to prepare the trophies, flensing them, getting all the meat off the hides and salting them to begin the drying process. They would also be "caping out" the skulls, sawing off the parts not needed, and boiling the horns off the skull plate to be sure that the trophies would be legitimate to enter the US, and not considered imported "meat" for the USDA purposes. While the guides and helpers were dealing with the trophies, in the early morning sunshine, which dawned as a far better day than we had seen or were expecting, we all sat in the sun and admired the spectacular view. The hunter/gatherers were at their base camp with snow-capped volcanoes looking down on us from all directions.
I sat on a rock and wrote a few observations in what was becoming a rather complete description of the hunt thus far in the first of a series of six "serial letters." My Serial Letter recording might ideally have been transmissible in electronic from, except that what we had available on the mountaintop was my supply of post cards borrowed from prior trips, since I could find none in my flurry of excursions around Kamchatka thus far, and the stationery I had carried in my carry-on bag from many points earlier in the year. As I looked around at the others who were each drying out clothes that had been soaked or making repairs of some equipment that had not weathered the rigors of the trek and mountain encampment as well as we had, and I noticed that each was getting a glow of sunburn at this thin air altitude. So, I put on my hat and covered up when the first clouds rolled overhead. About noon a minor sprinkling occurred about the time we had a light lunch, awaiting the later feast of fresh mutton tenderloin. But, by afternoon, we retreated to the tents to pull down the flaps and weight them down with stones as we had learned so far from the heavy winds that started up. We carefully packed up all the things that would be needed in the backpack trek off the mountain for Alan and me and the two jaegers the next day, stuffing sleeping bags and spike camp gear in the backpacks. I took out lots of stuff, but also added a few rolls of backup film and a couple of tapes for the adventures still to come As the wind and rain kicked up still further, I hunkered down and pulled out still more sheets of stationery, using my headlamp to write the further story of our arrival at the base camp along the way to the sheep hunt just concluded. By the time it was our "bedtime" we were back to reinforcing the tent again as the sides were cracking like sails in a gale force wind.
The next day was like our first "rest day" except worse. The wind and rain never let up and intensified at night. I had used the time in writing a complete description of our hunt and the environment thus far, and had pulled my sleeping bag back out of the backpack when it became apparent that we would not be going down the mountain as planned on the second day. Victor and Sergei had made a run down the mountain on the second day carrying supplies to be hung high in a tree when they could come to trees down in the valley one the way toward where we would be camping when we cold make the trip. They returned after dark in the rain and wind to hang up their wet clothes and report that the sun was shining down in the valley and it looked better down there than it did on the mountaintop-but for the hordes of mosquitoes they had encountered. They said they had crossed lots of bear sign, but had been hoping not to encounter any bears, as they were going across to the next mountain over which would have to be climbed before we made our final approach to the camp site we would have overlooking the Storage River.
We were re-packed for a several day excursion down the mountain from our base camp where the full crew would be staying-our cook, translator, camp helper Pascha and Slava would be holding out "crossing their fingers" once again for us. We stocked up with one additional item in our packs after a good breakfast on what would be a long day, and much the inferior rations once we left our cook and supplies at base camp-mosquito repellant of the Russian DEET heavy duty variety.