Brandy leaves her
second generation of
cubs with me as
she looks for salmon.
She did the same with
the other two cubs.
I recently spent a
wonderful hour with
Gin who is now
3 years old.










Lemon and Lime
play at my feet.













Photo of Walnut taken
from the window
while I eat my
breakfast.

(Click on any Image to see a higher resolution version)

The time was about 3am on the 12th which was the day I was leaving the cabin at Kambalnoye. I had made it through the infamous September 11th unscathed but the world was yet to experience what that date will be remembered forever for.

Ironically, I was having trouble sleeping because the thought of heading back into the world of people is difficult for me. I also had a guest in the cabin. Volodia Gordienko, who works for The Department of Hunting Regulations was staying with me for the remaining three days before we put everything on a helicopter and take it to Petropavlovsk. He also is helping me coordinate and manage our part in the anti-poaching program. We had lots to talk about before I leave regarding keeping rangers working and happy through the long winter. He and I had done a lot of hiking because the weather was good. Volodia is a hunter so to wander through so many bears that were around here at the time, without a gun, was a new and somewhat nerve racking experience for him. There had been a heavy rain and big surge of sockeye salmon had made its way up the river to the lake and brought along with it a large herd of bears. Biscuit had been out of sight somewhere eating pine nuts so Volodia had not been introduced to her until that evening. I spotted her on a knoll among the pine half a kilometer north of the cabin so I stopped my mad, last minute effort to get the cabin ready for winter and Volodia and I went to see her and say goodbye.

It was a struggle to get up through the thick mat of pine bush to where she was. I realized that I was between two hesitant and somewhat reluctant parties. It was not clear that they really wanted to meet. When Biscuit saw there was a stranger behind me she snuffed and stood up high on her hind legs to get a better look which was difficult because Volodia, being surprised at how big she was standing above us, was quite content to stay under the canopy of alder leaves and very happy to hang back. I tried to get him to say something to her, in English or in Russian, but he was either reluctant or unable to say a word. With more huffing Biscuit disappeared over the edge of the hill. I left Volodia and followed trying to reassure her that everything was OK. She let me catch up with her down in a hollow on the beautiful shore line of what Maureen and I call Hidden Lake. It must have been an interesting scene with Biscuit standing a couple feet from my hip watching the alders shake as I talked Volodia out of the bush. At the same time I was trying to convince Biscuit that he was alright.

Eventually, they were comfortable with each other with about 40 feet between them. While Volodia took video Biscuit slid into the lake and began to cavort around in the water. When she came out, she and I walked side by side to a favorite fishing spot in Char Creek, when the pinks are spawning. Looking is just one of our rituals because we both know there are no pinks this year. While walking along the bank Biscuit began smelling the ground and then dug up a nest of bumble bees and proceeded to eat all the larva while at the same time snapping up the big slow flying adults as they lumbered into the air. They seemed bigger than small birds and Biscuit seemed to be able to swallow them before they stung her mouth.

All this was an eye-opener for a man who is mostly involved with killing bears. Allowing more people to experience this is something I wish we could do more of because Volodia said later that he was already at the place of not ever shooting another for sport. His job, however, requires that he does have to kill the occasional bear and be very skillful about it.

While Maureen was in Petropavlovsk on her way home, Volodia had to hunt down and kill a female who was two years younger than Biscuit. This female bear had killed an 18 year old man on the beach at the edge of the city in the famous harbor where Bering had set out to discover Alaska in 1741. Early in the morning, this young man and his friend were walking along the sand when they came across the bear who had been supplementing her diet all summer with household garbage. Volodia had carefully examined the set of very clear tracks made in the sand by both people and the bear. He told me that it looked like an unclouded example of how running from a bear led to an attack that otherwise would not have ended so violently. He determined from an interview with the survivor that they had run away first and then the bear had chased them. The tracks indicated that the bear ran lazily for at least 150 yards before suddenly deciding to catch one of the men. At this point the prints show a sudden and powerful burst of speed. Later, examining the dead bear he found that it had been carrying some shotgun pellets in one front leg and paw. This was not a serious wound and had healed over, but it did indicate previous conflict.

These stories had made me reticent about connecting with "Civilization" again and was the reason I could not sleep. I tuned in my short wave radio which I use with ear-phone jacks so that all the weird sounds associated with these airwaves do not disturb others trying to get rest. I tuned into Voice Of America about 3 am just when they got the report of the first World Trade towers exploding in New York. They did not know it was hit by a plane yet. I did not get anymore sleep as the story unfolded in all its horror. The whole thing seems to be out of one of those over dramatized novels -- a product of some ones over active, ridiculous, morbid imagination about some horrible and very unlikely possibility. I think it will change American and perhaps our society in Canada forever and probably not for the better.

I flew my little plane back to Petropavlovsk that day and have been waiting here to see when I will be able to jet to Canada. It looks like I will go on schedule tonight at 10pm. It has been another wonderful season here in Kamchatka and I head back to North America with some hesitation, but I will get acclimatized in time.

I decided to include some photos of Brandy and her charges rather than images of the city which I am having some trouble getting into the spirit of photographing. I hope to write a couple more entries from Alberta before shutting it down for the winter.

- Charlie

I just received word that Charlie will be delayed in Russia for at least a week until air flights get back on schedule.