Hey, the last few days have been a blur. We spent the afternoon on the last field day out of Aniak fishing and lounging along the virtually inaccessible (except by helicopter) Kipchuck River. Built a fire and cooked a king salmon over it for lunch. The next night, Steve L, the owner of the "hotel" we're staying at, had our crew over for steaks, halibut, horseshoes, and one hundred cans of Budwieser and Miller Lite in an ice chest. It was awesome. The real kicker was when 56 year old Steve P. came over. He was already hammered when he showed up with an unopened bottle of Crown Royal. By the end of the night, he was drooling all over his chin, couldn't speak properly, and was giving people the "evil eye." He eventually passed out in Steve L's backyard. Oh, I forgot to mention he was also the fixed wing pilot who was going to take half our crew and gear up to the Baird Mountains the next day. The other kicker was he had to be in Anchorage by six the next day for a physical with one of only a couple of doctors who are willing to clear him to fly. I guess he has poor vision and hearing. Absolutely hilarious. Welcome to the bush.

Anyway, the Brooks Range is amazing and incredible. I love it. I also saw my first Dall Sheep yesterday, which was cool (they are close cousins to Bighorn sheep).

ed



ps, i miss you mikey

Hey,

You heard it here first. Eric Thompson is a national champion. Junior 17-18 Short-track Mtn. Bike National Champion. Yay!!!


Well, I'm in Anchorage at the moment, heading back out to Aniak in the morning. I got a message today telling me to cancel my flight to Kotzebue and go back to Aniak instead. I'll be working out of Aniak for a few days, then heading north for the next three weeks or so. The northern camp works in the Baird Mountains, a western spur of the Brooks Range. It's well above the Arctic Circle, and it's really quite beautiful up there, though I only spent parts of two days in the area in early June. It should be nice to go back. The big goal for August is to see the Aurora Borealis in all its splendor. Here's a couple pictures of the land around the camp I'll be working out of. Not too bad.




Saw Mikey and Sickboy in Denver. Had some good times, and lots of good naps. I also met his parents. The best part was I somehow managed to avoid riding a bicycle the whole time. For a while I even thought I was going to be racing the Mt. Evans Hillclimb. Now that would have been funny.

Ok. Real funny guys. i swear i am the only person this sort of thing happens to.

Take a look at the writeup for me in the velodrome "Program and Racing Guide." Not only does it say that I have no jump, and that I only recently have gotten to the point of "challenging" my dad in races, but it insinuates I am suffering from E.D. (do I need to spell it out for you?). This insinuation is open to interpretation to some degree, but my dad sure seemed to pick up on it. For some reason I did not find it particularly funny. For those of you who are wondering where the name came from, I will clarify before any more snickering occurs. 3 years ago, in Tucson Arizona, Skreech, F. Steve, and myself were preparing to go to dinner. The other two were waiting on me, and Skreech in a hurry said my name real fast. Steve, who wasn't listening closely asked, "Who's Ed?" From that point on I have always been Ed. Not ED. Skreech can verify. brain can too, hehehe... hehehe.


I suspected that my dad was involved, but now I'm not so sure. It also could have been Bob, who finally got fed up with me always asking him for race entry money. I have a super-secret list of other suspects that I will be investigating in the coming days and weeks from my secret base in Alaska. Any tips are appreciated.


Also, I haven't graduated yet. Apparently I didn't apply for graduation. Except that I did. About three years ago I was starting to think I would never leave the university. it hasn't changed.

Finished another day in Kipchuck today. It rained all day. Kevin, in both the photos below, and I were slipping all over the place. We followed a stream down from the plateau to the Kipchuck River. And yes, that is a garbage bag I'm wearing in the photo below. Don't ask.

Beautiful Alaska near Aniak

The mark of the bear.


My ride.


The mountains just to the south of Cone

today i saw one of the coolest things i have ever seen. we were flying into Cone on the "wherrly bird," about a mile from our dropoff point (and south of where i got attacked by 3 or 4 miles) when we saw a mother grizzly bear fighting an enourmous male grizzly bear. both bears were standing on their hind legs in fighting stance. But when we got close they both scattered. the female was protecting her two cubs that were just behind her.

Did I mention that Cone is absolutely filled with grizzly bears? it is rare that we go a day without someone seeing one. Generally it is fine because most of Cone is pretty high (except where i got attacked), so we have few trees, little brush, and excellent visibility. But when we start taking stream sediment samples at another place called Kipchuck in a couple days, it could get bad. It is all forested and brushy, which means danger. In response, we bought some air horns to scare the bears away. But when Pete, our lead geologist, was trying to scare a mother bear away yesterday on a hillslope with the air horn, the bear just stared at him and didn't move. It took winding up the helicopter to get the bear to go away. Thus I'm kind of wondering how well the air horns will work at Kipchuck. hmmm..... at least there's no lack of excitement. i can't say my job is boring.

I'm thinking about putting up a photo of my side and part of my ass that shows the claw punctures from where the grizzly bear stood on me, but it might be too revealing (remember, I've never mooned anybody in my life). maybe i'll try taking one from a different angle, cause they're pretty sweet.

finally, i'll be in minnesota from july 13th to july 18th, then out to denver to visit mikey from the 18th through probably the 22nd, though i haven't made a reservation yet on the departure. mikey, i sure hope this is okay with you cause i just went ahead and did it. i hear andy kruse will be out there too. that should be fun.

oh, and the mosquitos are still horrific. they don't even go away in the rain.


ed

ok, where to begin. i was having a really good day yesterday, mapping some rhyolite domes and some glacial morains. It was going well and I was covering a lot of ground. It was starting to get late, and I wanted to check out another potential rhyolite or rhyodacite dome to the west of where I was by about a mile. However, there was a sea of alder brush between me and the hill. I decided to give it a go because I wanted to do a good job on my map. It's not all fun and games up here you know.

So alder brush is probably the scariest stuff to go through in Alaska because it is so thick. You have about 3 feet of visibility in every direction. The obvious worry is coming upon sleeping bears. That's the other thing I should mention. The new area we began mapping in, called Cone, is absolutely thick with bears. We'd already seen a bunch, Jasper had seen a bear den, and the hillslopes were all dug up (from bears digging for ground squirrals). Thus the area was sort of dangerous. As a consequence, I was periodicly shouting HEY! and OUT OF MY WAY! to make sure I didn't startle one. Unfortunatley, that is exactly what I did. In the middle of the alder ocean, alders began to shake violiently in front of me, and in a matter of about 3 seconds an enormous grizzley bear head emerges in front of me. During the previous two seconds I had taken the shotgun off my shoulder and started to load the slug into the chamber, but when I saw the bear about 4 feet in front of me, coming at me really, really fast I realized the futitlity in the action and just turned around. Wham! The bear knocked me to the ground, stood on me for about 2 or 3 seconds then climbed off me and ran away. I got up with blood dripping all over the ground, coming from my face. I felt around with my tongue and realized part of my cheek was drooping out. Loaded the shotgun, called for a helicopter pickup, and got the hell out of there.

Brain's prediction of me getting eaten by bears has not yet turned out to be true, but it was close. I think the slice in my cheeck was from the bear walking over my face. If his claw was 4 inches higher it would have taken out my eye, and if I hadn't been wearing a backpack, I probably would have been killed. Pretty close call actually. Apparently I should get a pretty sweet scar from the deal, which could be a good thing or could be a bad thing. Only time will tell.

I'm staying out of the field for two days to let the sweeling in my cheek go down, then it'll be back out there. Six stitches to sew me up. Next time though, I will be carrying the shotgun with a slug in the chamber when I wade through the brush. He learns!

If you have not been to Alaska, you should. It's absolutely wild up here - at least the Alaskan bush, away from the cities. It's the real deal. Nature governs the world up here, not man. You end up with an appreciation for the grizzely bear too.

ed