In Alaska

I am spending a couple of months in Juneau, Alaska helping my friend Cathy with wildlife surveys for her environmental consulting business. It has been a couple of days since I left Wisconsin so I will take this opportunity to catch up.

After a bumpy landing I arrived in wet and windy Juneau on June 12. Apparently as we were throwing my gear in Cathy's truck the wind swept the parking stub out of the cab never to be seen again. Although Cathy was parked for less than an hour, the lost ticket charge of $35 was implemented. Obviously, I am hoping this was not a sign of things to come for the rest of my Alaskan adventure.

I actually don't begin surveys until June 21. So, I have a week to explore the Juneau area. Unfortunately, I tweaked my back moving a boulder the day before I left WI and am therefore limiting my exploration until I am comfortable that I will be 100% for the surveys next week. Age seems to be slowly catching up to me.

The surveys next week will take Cathy and I to Admiralty Island. It is the seventh largest island in North America and has a human population of approximately 600. It also has the denotation of having the highest density of brown bears in the world - one bear per the island's 1600 square miles.

The only brown bears I have seen have been in numerous nightmares as a kid; enough sleepless nights to convince me I was destined to die in a bear attack. What is especially ironic about this is that the nightmares began after watching the subcult film "Grizzly" while living in Saudi Arabia. I was also convinced someone was going to run a hose through one of the windows of our transitional trailer (located in the desert) while my family was sleeping, and fill the trailer with piranhas - after watching the film "Piranha" of course. I did stop watching movies of that genre and did get over the fear of piranhas. I am curious (yet, eerily excited) to have my first encounter with a non-cinematic or sleep-induced brown bear.