Itilman Bay showing the area that Biscuit is most likely to be denning. The black arrow shows a place I have seen dens on other years and is still deep in snow. The white arrow is where a bear just emerged. Alder is the gray and the pines are darker. Note the volcanic ash in one layer of snow. The spewing volcano is on the second Kuril Island directly south, 40 miles away.




The cabin taken the day I arrived. It is impossible to find and plug all the holes that this snow blows through during gale force winds. Over the years it has stained our beautiful larch walls. Not a pretty site.




The same shot taken this evening.

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

Still waiting. The weather is foggy and raining today but it has been reasonably good the past few days. After I put the last entry out via satellite, I left the cabin for my daily hike into Itilman Bay which in other years was the area that Biscuit had been denning in. There are lots of alder slopes and the snow lays deep in them. This area behind Biscuit Mountain is not visible from the cabin. I get there by taking a curving route around the shoulder of that mountain on the ice of the lake.

I was no sooner out the door when I discovered that the night before I somehow had missed seeing a small bear who's tracks lead almost to the porch. Following the tracks back, I found that this was one of two large cubs. There was also the tracks of the mother who I immediately assumed was Brandy. The bear who came to the door would have been Lime. This was something she would do last year, just to say hello as she is a very good friend. She had come directly up wind from where they all would have smelled that I was home.

The thought of it being them was very exciting and comforting because it would mean that it was very unlikely that there was any poaching last fall. Brandy and her cubs would have been just as vulnerable as Biscuit. Am I grasping at straws? It might not have been her at all. There are lots of bears with two cubs that age roaming around, but why the tracks up to the door? They had been there about 18 hours before and were heading east where I was going anyway so I followed, hoping to catch up, but they had too much of a head start and eventually their trail led up and over the divide at the east end of the valley. This is a route we have seen Brandy take often during the summer.

Then last evening, I found similar tracks coming along my snowshoe trail, this time in the opposite direction. Although they were melted out I could see they too were made by a female and two big cubs. The tracks were about the same age as mine. They seemed to have followed me out of Itilman Bay on May 30th, a distance of two kilometers. They came almost to the cabin again and then continued down the river. I must have been cooking supper and once more missed seeing them.

The last two days I have watched bears come out of their dens. None have been Biscuit, but at least it shows that there are bears still hibernating. When I study the mountainsides, I can see many areas of deep snow that still would be dry and cold at ground level, even with today's rain. Although, the snow is starting to melt fast.

I plan to spend lots of time hiking and watching as soon as the fog lifts and I can see the mountain sides again. Today I stayed inside and painted the cooking area of the cabin. All the moisture that gets in during the winter has stained the walls so the place was looking shabby. (See Photos)

It has been three weeks since I arrived. Maureen is flying into Petropavlovsk (PK) one week from today and will be down here as soon as the weather allows. She will then be immediately alone for I have to take advantage of the helicopter to get back to PK and get my Kolb aircraft, and hopefully get back within three or four days.

- Charlie