Maureen holding her prize track. Can you believe this thing?
That bear's paw is bigger than Maureen's head! (click on the
image to see an enlargement)
From Charlie:
We disappeared into the fog and misty rain this afternoon after a long stretch of beautiful windless weather. The view from our porch has almost taken our breath away at times as the wild flowers are at their peak of profusion right now and it has not been long since the snow covered the country side. Everything seems in a rush to get on with life before the inevitable early frosts. There are lots of salmon showing up in the lake but most of the bears are down in the river yet where the fish are easier to catch. However a old female wandered through by the cabin only a few minutes ago so I grabbed the camera and took a picture of it one second before it got a shock from the fence. This was obviously an animal who hadn't been educated to the jolt previously (not surprising as there are hundreds of bears in the area) and illustrates how you have to be diligent making sure everything is working. She let out a big snort and ran away, looking over her shoulder for whatever it was that hit her.
As Maureen mentioned in her last entry, I made a trip to Petropavlovsk recently. What a pleasure to fly in such smooth air both coming and going, a distance of 310 miles without a bump! Very unusual for here. I keep my plane with my friends at the flying school as they have 24 hours security for all the aircraft there which include several of the famous Russian aerobatic Yaks, six gliders, Wilgas to pull them with and a few airplanes they built themselves. The problem is that I have to land on the grass with my float without wheels. This means that I can only take off early in the morning when the grass is still slippery with dew.
Recently, the Global Environmental Fund (G.E.F.), announced that it was going to make $16,000,000. available to Kamchatka over the next few years to solve the various problems here; first installment: $6 million.