My computer is acting up again. It says it needs rebooting and I forgot that disc. All the photos I have been taking are locked up there so I'm write with Maureen's. I did take this one shot yesterday, June 21st.

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

This has been a difficult time for Maureen and I. For a while we were clinging to some hope that at least some of our bears would suddenly appear along the lake shore as they always have. Eventually this began to feel naïve and then stupid and now I am left wondering what I am going to do with so much bitterness. Maureen feels very hurt she says. Meanwhile we are making our plans to leave our cabin for good. It will never feel comfortable here again. We have put up with the bad weather because interesting experiences always awaited us when the storms subsided. Now these storms seem pointless to endure. We want to get out of here fast. The date we have set is July 8th to go to Petropavlovsk (PK).

Of course the question of weather or not to cut all ties with Russia has arisen. Is the ranger program working well enough justifying making the effort to continue. With this question nagging me it was a good thing I took the trip I did, back to PK on the helicopter Maureen came here on. It was also a supply and wage paying trip for the rangers so when I left here there were several rangers on board that were spelling off others who needed a break back in the city. Our friend and Russian fixer, Volodia Gordienko was also on board and I showed him the "thing" that I had found hanging on the cabin wall. He identified it as definitely being a bear gall bladder. As you know, I had been in a state of denial about this possibility.

After a very inadequate 15 minute talk with Maureen I got on the chopper to go get my plane. The trip gave me the chance to visit all the cabins and say hello to most of the eight rangers who were understandably still feeling very proud of themselves for the bust they had made at the remote lake where they had caught the bear poachers shortly after I came here this spring. In fact the helicopter had stopped at this lake on the way in with Maureen to pick up all the camp stuff and bear hides that were left when the poachers had been arrested and marched the long hike out to Kurilskoy Lake ranger headquarters.

The rangers were shocked and probably wondering if their jobs were in jeopardy when they heard of the fiasco at our lake last fall. They felt like they had failed. One of them explained what I already knew -- that there was no teeth in the laws for arresting helicopter pilots who flew these poachers to where they wanted to go and picked them up with their bounty. They told me they had heard that the laws were going to change soon when it was made a criminal offense. Will it happen? We all know the helicopter pilot who is supporting the poachers the most. I even talk about him in Grizzly Heart as being a wonderfully skilled pilot, which the scoundrel is. It is a prohibitive expense to provide our rangers enough helicopter time to get at the poachers who use helicopters. To save the bears and the salmon the laws must change. In the mean time I have decided that I will keep the program working as long as my efforts are needed or as long as the money needed is available.

Back in Petropavlovsk it took me a while to prepare my aircraft. At the time I planned to use it to look for our bears in places away form this valley. By now I have faced the fact that this was grasping at straws. When I got back here Maureen had been alone for five days and we hadn't visited in six to seven weeks. It didn't take us long to decide we were out of here as soon as we could confirm definitely what went on. The low places are still snow covered and at this date the lake is only 25% ice-free. We can not leave with a nagging doubt we might be mistaken so we gave ourselves three weeks.

I have been toying with my original intent of flying my Kolb home from here to Alberta when our project was through. There are many complications in the way of my doing this. First is getting permission which is a huge problem here in Russia because I have been embarrassing Air Regulations officials for eight years. Getting through Alaska looks OK. Second is the distances between places I can get gas. My tank holds only 40 liters of fuel, good for 3 hours of non-turbulent air with no head wind. Turbulent air takes an enormous amount more fuel, especially when I am heavy loaded. In the past, I have carried enough fuel to travel 1000+ kilometers, by strapping two gerry cans, one to each side of the fuselage and having two more on my passenger seat. This gives me 140 liters. I then need room for my tent and sleeping bag and food for a week in case I get stopped by weather, and my trusty tool kit. The whole low and slow trip I am planning is about 7000 kilometers.

Along its route, I will meet with people working in bear country, especially once I cross the Bering Sea to Alaska and down through BC. I will take my time and visit while dropping into places like McNiell Falls and Brooks Falls where there has been long history of bear viewing and bear protection. Some of these places I have never been to, others it has been 40 years since I was last there. With a little luck I will visit with people like Larry Amiller and his wife Colleen Mat.

- Charlie