One Heck Of A Ride

181 Kamchatka Brown Bear and northern Canada.) After traveling nearly completely around the world – from California to Eastern Europe and on to Siberia – we found ourselves only a short hop from Alaska. These tents above the Vyvenka River served as base camp for six hunters and their guides Galen and I shared a tent camp with four other hunters on the Vyvenka River, a remote and beautiful area. The Russians had the camp ready for us, with all the tents set up, before we arrived. Problem was, the site was infested with mosquitoes while we were there. Upriver from camp, the banks were covered with dead and dying fish that had finished their spawning runs. The camp’s menu featured arctic char and pink salmon caught by the hunters, and frozen Kamchatka king crabs the author purchased at a Petropavlovsk fish market We had time the first afternoon to walk up the mountain to a plateau where we spent a couple of hours glassing the Vyvenka River valley before deciding to check out the fishing a short distance upstream from our tents. We caught plenty of fish, but some of the other hunters had gone downstream and found a really hot spot. On my next trip to the river, I went downstream and watched one of the other men catch twenty-one fish with twenty- one casts. The fishing was over the top and nearly every cast brought a hookup with an arctic char and, every so often, a pink salmon. We kept only a few to eat and released the others until the last day, when the Russians said we should catch all the fish we could for an orphanage. (When we left, we had filled gunnysacks with hundreds of pounds of fish and moose meat, enough to feed that orphanage for the entire winter.) I took advantage of this super fishing opportunity every chance I had on this trip. I also kept a close eye out for bears that might be attracted by the spawning run. In addition to the salmon and char we caught, I had bought enough frozen Kamchatka king Fish market across from hotel in Petropavlovsk Kamchatka king crab... The Best! crabmeat from a fish market across the street from our hotel in Petropavlovsk to feed everyone in our camp. I love to eat crab, and the camp’s cook prepared it in several different and delicious ways. It does not get any better than that! I shot my Kamchatka brown bear on our