Southwest Alaska is quite arguably the most expensive place I have ever lived at. A dinner at our Brooks Lodge is $32 dollars. Even though it is all you can eat, it is still more expensive than the most expensive buffet in Vegas. (And their buffets stretched longer than a city block!) A mixed drink costs at least $10 dollars and a bottle of beer is $7 dollars.

So why is Alaska so expensive? The first reason would be the cost of transportation. Fruits, vegetables, and meats like beef are not native to this land so a lot of this has to be shipped. Secondly, they also have to be shipped in a prompt manner to retain their freshness. Ever heard of a $30 dollar watermelon? Or a $15 dollar squash? How about a $5 dollar can of Spaghettio's? Welcome to the Alaskan peninsula.

Most of my salary goes to food. The good news is that besides food, I don't have anything else to spend my money on, therefore I do save quite a bit. It isn't like I can go hit the mall or movie theater on my weekends. So, unless I get some crazy internet shopping addiction, I'll come out with more money than I came.

Once a visitor departs the floatplane, they head to our Visitor Center for Intro Bear School 101. It is about 50 yards from the beach to the Visitor Center, and some of the visitors have their first bear experience before they arrive at the Visitor Center's doorsteps. I would tell the folks on the airplane, "Move quickly and together in a group. We got a bear coming this way and I would like to get everyone inside for bear orientation ASAP." Bear orientation is about 10 minutes long, and most of the people feel much better about walking amongst bears after the course.


BEARS! - INTRO BEAR SCHOOL 101
What is the minimum distance for bear viewing?
Here in Katmai, it is 50 yards. It is the minimum distance, which means depending on the bear's actions, one may want to give it some more space.

How fast can a bear sprint?
They can cover 50 yards in less than three seconds, hence...minimum distance. A bear's stride is much longer than a human's, therefore while it may appear to be moving slow, it can walk much faster than us.

What should I do when walking in the wilderness alone?
It is probably better walking with a buddy or in a group. I prefer to talk to my folks, but in a louder voice so the bears know where we are. The last thing you want is to surprise a bear by sneaking up to it.

What do you do when you encounter a bear within the 50 yard distance?
Talk in a normal manner to calm both you and the bear down. (mostly you) Then slowly back up opposite to the bear. Most of the bears here walk down "bear trails", thus you can normally tell which direction it is going by the trail. Bears have the right of way. Don't ever try to haze/force a bear from its path, because most of the time it won't work. They get quite stubborn.

But bears do charge at people, right? What should I do then?
Bears do charge people if they feel provoked. Sometimes it is a fake charge, meaning they will jump at you and then stop. That is probably a good indication to back away. Other things people can do is to climb up trees or platforms. Brown bears are huge, and although the smaller bears can climb, the larger ones cannot due to their weight. I suppose playing dead works, too. But that is probably the last option if everything else is unavailable. NEVER RUN from a bear. It will only entice their curiosity and (just like a dog) will try to run with you.

Do bears attack/eat people?
No. The only reason a bear may come close to you would be due to its curiosity. It is probably wondering why you are there, too! Brown bears here typically eat fish, grass, berries, and ground squirrels. Just don't carry around food or wear cologne titled "l'Eau du Salmon"

What is the closest bear encounter you have had, Ranger Dan?
Just last week, two young teenage bears ran past me, brushing my leg at the same time. They literally ran into me, hit my leg, stopped 10 feet in front of me as if to say, "are you alright?", and then continued down the trail. The two bears were playing chase up & down the trail for the past hour. The best part was that I got it on video! I will post it tomorrow.

What do you do when you wake up and see a bear sleeping on the porch of your cabin?
I usually open the door crack and yell out, "Hey, get off my porch!"
Quite amazing how well that works most of the time.

We have a wooden bear cutout placed outside our Visitor's Center to give tourists an idea of the adequate distance one should be from bears. The rule at Katmai is 50 yards from single bears and 100 yards from sows with cubs. The folks at the Visitor Center got a much better example today when the spring cubs (newly born this year) played in front of the cutout, curiously wondering why the wooden bear isn't alive.

As rangers, we give each bear a number for identification, and if they are lucky...a nickname. Nicknames arrive when we see something unique to identify an individual bear. For example, some cubs are typically seen riding "piggy back" on their mother's back. This goes for both walking around camp and swimming in the rivers. Because of these actions, our bear census rangers have given some of the cubs’ names like "Backpack" and "Velcro".

Other curiously intriguing bear names include:
Diver - male, one of the most popular bears in Katmai, he would be seen "diving" for fish underwater
Popeye - male, who has huge bicep muscles
Stormin' Normin' - male, huge body size. Likes to take command of the fishing area.
Ugly - male, he's not ugly, in fact the exact opposite
Snaggletooth - male, had a broken jaw and out of it grew a tooth that looked like a vampire fang
Bunny Bear - male, has huge, light brown ears
BB aka 'Bare Butt' - male, his pattern of fur shedding starts from his butt
Beadnose - female, has a pointy nose. Beautiful bear, quite arguably the supermodel of all bears
Milkshake - female, chocolate milkshake color
Divet - female, had an indent on her forehead
Lil' Miss Sunshine - female, actually she's quite the opposite. Known for charging other bears, animals, and humans in her way. In other words, she acts like what a bear should act. Katmai Ranger favorite. :-)




Q: Exactly how much salmon are in these waters?
A: Hopefully the photo above answers the question.

There are more than enough salmon for everyone! One could quite possibly reach their hands into the water and come up with a fish. Brooks River has been boiling with salmon for the past two weeks. "Boiling" - as in there are so many fish that they jump up & down and make the river splash. This splashing sound attracts the bears and they can be seen running at full speed into the waters with their mouths open.


update: I just got back from giving the volcanoes tour at the Valley of 10,000 Smokes. It was extremely windy out there; about 40 mph winds. So unfortunately, I was guiding people through a six mile "ashstorm". Visibility was at 10 feet. It automatically brought back memories of living in the Sahara, but only there we had sandstorms. If it were up to me, I would prefer neither ashstorm nor sandstorm. We all ended up smelling like sulfur and looking like we rolled in London chimney. Unfortunately no pictures. But for now, I'm going to go take a shower.

Happy 4th of July!

I had the honor of giving the evening ranger program tonight. So while every other ranger was out partying and grilling, I was in the auditorium giving the public my talk about Southwest Alaskan Geography. My presentation was titled, "Katmai Geographic: a virtual tour". It was aimed at giving visitors a more in-depth view of the park, of why it operates as it is, amongst all the volcanoes, and why humans and other animals all congregate in this area. It was a virtual tour because I gathered many satellite images of the park, mixed it with ground photos, to giving viewers a view of the park from multiple perspectives.

Want to know where the bear dens are?
Want to know where you can find beaver lodges?
Want to know where's the best place to catch rainbow trout?
Where can I find the white beluga whales? Why are they there?
Why are the volcanoes on the east side, but not on the west side?
What's that weird bird song I heard while walking down Falls trail?

I got all the answers.

I had about 30 people during my ranger program, which was quite a lot. The small "auditorium" was packed full, standing room only. I edited my PowerPoint presentation earlier today to include firework animations and patriotic music. So while my family was watching fireworks down on the National Mall in D.C., I was showing visitors animated fireworks over a projector. Haha...it worked out well, nevertheless. After my program, many people even stayed later to ask me more questions.


Amusing Katmai Story of the Day:
In my previous entry, I posted a photo with loads of professional photographers on a platform. Well, turns out I was not the only one who has a pet peev with the space hogging tripods. Last year, a local Alaskan from nearby Naknek came to the park with a couple of wooden sticks and a disposable camera. Using duct tape to wrap the sticks into a makeshift tripod, he carried it to the Brooks Falls platform. The man then parked his tripod + disposable camera amongst the other professional photographers and was even asking questions such as, "How has the lighting been here? Would I need a key light coming from the left? Or do you recommend I change my ISO setting to capture more light?"

Hahahaha!!!

The pilot in the picture above looked so peaceful fishing at the edge of his floatplane. However, he carelessly caught a salmon and gutted it right on his float plane. The smell of fish guts attracted over 10 bears to the area, which was also in front of the Visitor Center where I was working. We had bears running all over; visitors that just landed were hiding inside their respective planes, and the people on the beach scampered inside the Visitor Center with me.

This all happened within the first 15 minutes of my first shift yesterday.
Just another day in the life at Katmai....



Another interesting story comes from stuck inside a building while bears were outside playing basketball.
Lebron James ain't got 'nuttin against playing bball with brown bears.




The cubs like to jump on their mom's back when crossing a deep river crossing. It is not because the cubs cannot swim, it is because they do not want to get swept downstream, where a potentially bigger bear is.

The park season has officially begun! Although Katmai National Park opened its doors on June 1st, the bears haven't been fishing at the falls until few days ago. But now that the schools of sockeye salmon are coming, more and more bears are coming out of their winter dens and hanging around at the park. The bears have begun to multiply exponentially. I would see two bears on the first day, then eight on the second, and....WHOA!, there would be 20 bears on the third day. It is amazing.

I still have yet to get the famous "fish jumping into the bear's mouth" shot with my camera. The salmon aren't all here yet, thus not jumping on a regular basis. But later in the summer.....




Bears are not the only mammals that multiply exponentially at Katmai. Tourists, also flock to the park in hoards. I have never seen so many photographers squeezed onto a platform in my life. Tripods take up so much space, and the professional photographers are in a constant push with casual tourists over viewing space.

I met a really well known photographer the other day: Kennan Ward. Quite a friendly guy, he was teaching me the "in's and out's" of nature photography. He has a tripod + lens that costs more than my family's car, haha. It is amazing how such photography equipment can costs $50,000+.




While the big, male bears were fishing, a sow and her cubs were hanging around the river's bank. The mother bear pushed the cubs on top of a tree, so they wouldn't get harmed by the bigger bears. In the picture above, they climbed a tree roughly 10 meters from me. It was the cutest climb ever. They kinda looked like koalas.

Sad but true
The older male bears actually kill (and sometimes eat) the little cubs. Why? So the female bear can be fertile again for mating. Bear cub sympathy this way please.

Today was my day off work. I woke up quite late, a little dazed, and walked towards the showers. On my way there, the head ranger, Jeanne, walked towards me and offered me a spot on the plane to tour the Valley of 10,000 Smokes. I was still in dazed, "Huh? Are you pulling my leg? Do I have to pay for this?" Haha...but long story short, I went on a spontaneous plane ride around the park's volcanoes! It was quite awesome.

How great is it to be a park ranger? Well, I get the opportunity to do stuff like this, flying around volcanoes, swimming in waterfalls, whereas other people have to pay massive amounts of money to do the same. And...I am doing this all while getting paid. I feel so lucky.




The volcano shown above is Mount Katmai. It is an active volcano with a crater lake. The lake was formed when the volcano's dome collapsed and glaciers fell in. It is a little over a mile in diameter and is over 800 meter deep, and slowly filling up at a rate of 8 feet a year. So, by the year 2050, the volcano should be overflowing. Interesting, yeah? It is also possible to hike to the volcano's caldera, but that would be a two day's hike. Flying over it is so much easier.




The picture above shows glacial silt (the brown stuff) flowing into Naknek Lake.
It is crazy how much stuff goes into that lake, and yet it still looks very silky, smooth, and blue.

China had an endless supply of noodles. In West Africa, Mauritania had unlimited mangoes. So what do I get in Alaska? How about a bountiful supply of fresh water fish: sockeye salmon, pike, and rainbow trout.

What do I eat here?
Fish! I have quickly become a fan of the various fish found in the lakes in Katmai. There is just so many fish in the waters. With every three casts, an angler pretty much is guaranteed a bite on his lure. That rate of catch is insane. In other words, if I were hungry, I would just take a fishing rod to the river and four minutes later I would have my dinner. And to think people pay big bucks (up to $50 per fish) in supermarkets in the lower 48 states.

As of this moment, I eat mostly pike and trout. The salmon run has yet to start. Supposedly three years ago, salmon were already flowing into the nearby rivers. But due to climate change and late summers, the salmon run have been pushed back.




Alaskan beer is great as well. Alaskan Amber and Alaskan IPA are probably some of the best beers I have ever tasted. That is quite something, since I went to school in Wisconsin and they treasure their beers, too. Better than Leinenkugel's? Yep. Better than Budweiser? No contest.

A "perfect" Alaskan meal would consist of:
fresh salmon/trout
fried potatoes
fried onions
Alaskan Amber


The bear sightings have been multiplying by the day. I would post many of their photos online, but I am trying not to be over excited. Come July, there will be bears walking all along the trails. They will outnumber people, and that is when I will post the better photos.

I saw a mink the other day while on platform duty! Spotting a mink is quite rare I've heard, since many are too shy to come out. But this guy was quite brave and curious. Kate and I were working on the platform together when we saw the mink. We were facing each other while talking, and suddenly her face and body froze, as if she had seen a ghost. Apparently the mink walked up the platform and was standing right behind me, about 5 feet, just nosing around like a cat.

When I finally turned around, the mink ran down the stairs and underneath a bridge. Kate and I went on one side of the bridge to take photos. On the other side of the bridge, there were a pack of magpie birds. Apparently the mink drew attention to these magpies and the birds were determined to team up on the mink to drive him out of their "territory". So for more than 30 minutes, the mink was trapped underneath the bridge, not knowing which side to get out. It was either to face the wrath of our cameras or the wrath of the magpies. Poor fella!

I eventually chased away the birds before getting a couple of good photo shots.

Mink comes from the Swedish word, "menk", which was referred to as "that stinky animal from Finland."
They are in the same family as skunks, and have similar glands that can spray smelly aromas.

Ralph - Law Enforcement Ranger
Jeff - Interp Ranger & former Coast Guard member (also my roommate)

Ralph, Jeff, and I decided to grab the "gumby wet suits" the other day and float down Brooks River. The weather has been gorgeous the past week and a lazy float down the river just seemed right. The gumby suits do float quite well. They lifted our bodies up like any other life preserver, and most importantly kept us warm and away from the nasty Alaskan hypothermia.

While floating down the river rapids, we were thinking in our minds, "Wow...people would pay massive amounts of money to do the thing we are doing right now: floating down rapids with bears on either side of the river." There is some truth to that. It would be Six Flags but with wildlife. It would be the Colorado River but with bears and salmon swimming past you. As one comment from the park's guest-book said, "Alaska is Colorado on steroids."




We saw three bears feeding on the river banks during our float. The mom and her two cubs just turned there heads and stared at us. Almost as if thinking, "What are those red lobster suits floating down the river?!" Haha. Bears are notoriously curious animals, and this only gave them something more to ponder about. While we were near the end of the river's mouth, even a few other park employees looked at us in surprise. Stephanie told me later, "Yeah, we were walking over the bridge, only to see three red things floating down. We though at first to be a bizarre driftwood, or maybe a large bird thing-a-majig. But gumby suits? We need to try this next time."

Floating down the river is only something we can do this early into the summer. Come July, there will be more anglers along the river would probably not welcome the sight of three guys in red suits disturbing their moment of fishing tranquility. It would also be the time where most of the large bears gather around the falls, and would probably mistaken us for large, red salmon.




bonus picture of a small bear cub climbing over our bridge walkway
then he gets stuck
and then tries to find a way out

Alaska has been a blast so far! My first few weeks at Katmai National Park was been nothign less than an adventure. The weather has been unpredictable, with 70 mph winds and snow. There have been wild animal sightings everywhere. And I live in a tent frame cabin. My first two weeks at Brooks Camp did not have running water, or showers, or a normal bathroom. How many more similarities could I draw between Alaska and Africa?

I find Katmai National Park also draws many similarities to the movie "Jurassic Park".

Both have large land roving predators that could bite your head off

Both have electric fences which, although offering some protection, aren't really effective if the animal really wants to run through it

Both parks are in remote places which involve entering & exiting via floatplane or helicopter

Because of their remoteness, if something goes wrong, you are pretty much stranded

Jurassic Park had a hurricane, Katmai also has winds that blow up to 70 mph

Both parks are runned by an generator that frequently goes out

Flipping the circuit breaker switch in the middle of the night in both parks is quite scary when you can't see anything

I am really enjoying my experience here. These few days, I have had my cold water survival training. That involved us, rangers, jump into sub-zero lake temperatures and swim on to a boat 100 yards away. We have also begun learning how to use flares, laser guidance pens, bear pepper spray, and for the lucky few: shotguns.

Bear sightings have become more frequent as the days progress. Peak salmon time around Katmai is mid-July. That is when all the bears come down and hang around Brooks Falls to fish. I am already starting to be able to identify some of the "regular" bears that hang out near the park. Some bears have more of a reputation than others, as it seems. For example, the bear called Amelia has a reputation for being a "fish stealer". She would hang back, behind the falls, and when she spots another bear catch a fish, she would run and try to steal his/her's fish before they even notice!

...more bear stories coming

In the nearby town of Naknek, Alaska, there is a very fascinating story about kids flying to their public schools each morning.
Yes, I did say "fly".




The town is actually split up into North Naknek and South Naknek. South Naknek is located on the south bank of the Naknek River. It is not connected to the other communities by road, except for a few months when vehicle travel is possible via the winter trail across the frozen river.

With South Naknek not being accessible by road, a handful of kids and a teacher are flown daily to attend school in North Naknek, riding the nation's only flying school bus.

I am in Alaska! This place is so different from my other travels. It is quite chilly. About 30 degrees each day, but on the bright side I get 22 hours of sunlight each day. I need to look both ways before crossing the roads here, because wild animals are everywhere. Sometimes I see a deer, moose, caribou, a bald eagle, or even a bear. Okay, so I haven't seen a bear, yet. But I did wake up one morning and saw bear tracks outside my place.




I have been in King Salmon, Alaska for the past few days. I will be flying to my site at Katmai National Park on Friday, via floatplane. We will be landing on the beach of our lake camp. We would normally be landing on the lake, but the lake is frozen. In the meantime, we still got loads of training up in the main office in King Salmon




We saw belugas today! That was quite exciting, as I've always read about these white sea creatures in zoology books, but have never seen them in person. In fact, the belugas today were the first whales I have ever seen with my own eyes. Supposedly there are also orcas and narwhals in this area of Alaska. They live here year round, feeding on the salmon and other fish.






The Naknek/King Salmon area is quite remote. The only way to get to this part of Alaska is by either airplane or boat. There is a highway, but it only links these two cities. It does not branch out to other parts of Alaska. Over the years, people have had to ship their food, furniture, automobiles, and even their homes, via boat or plane. The photo above shows a person's house, just arriving at the ship docks. Every car & truck I see in this area were also shipped.

If I were to ask you, "how much does your house weigh?", would you know the answer?
Probably not.
But I can bet you almost every Alaskan knows!




The Naknek/King Salmon area is also the world's largest salmon fishing area in the world. "Bristol Bay" is the name of the region. During the summer months, when salmon swim up to Alaska to spawn, the bay is crazy with life. Each day, the local government sends out a report Each boat is restricted to 32 ft in length.




alright, I'll try and post pictures of bears next time
i am currently connecting in from a local bar
gonna go hang out with some of my ranger friends


I'll leave with this analogy:

washington d.c. --> starbuck coffee café's with internet
alaska --> beer biker bars with internet

I leave for Alaska tomorrow.
Wash DC --> Denver --> Anchorage --> King Salmon

I'll be staying a night in Anchorage.
I hear that place is gorgeous, with the downtown next to the ocean inlet.

In some ways, my arrival in Alaska feels quite similar to me leaving for Africa. I'm already on the Alaska listserv, and there are already people sending out emails about meeting up for drinks, go shopping together for last minute things, enjoying last moments of civilization, and so forth. Whoaaa...flashback.

Another fun place in D.C. is the Maine Avenue Fish Market. You can buy fresh butterfish, mackerel, grouper, snapper, soft-shell crabs, shrimp from the raw bar. It's an old-fashioned open-air market, nothing slick, right on the water with houseboats bobbing nearby. I don't think I've ever been to a fish market that is calm. This one was crazy with activity. There were people standing in the streets eating raw oysters. (do they taste that good?) The average wait for service at one of the window steamed crab places was around 15 minutes. Crazy.

Most people buy bushels of live crab. I went there with my dad the first time, and we asked for 4 crabs. The fishermen were looking at us like, "huh? four? or you mean four hundred? four is little." Haha...I guess the norm is to buy at least a dozen. One guy standing next to us came out with 96 crabs. I was like, "They that good?" He replied, "Hell yeah!"


UK Download of the Day:
Sway Dasafo is from Ghana, but resides in England
His rhyming style is so unique
My favorite UK MC

Sway - True Stories

One of my favorite spots in the D.C. area is Summer's Bar. It is constantly voted among the best "Soccer Bars" in the United States. During the weekends, it is crazy busy, starting as early as 7 am. The place is one of the few places I know that sell alcohol that early. Boddingtons, Kilian Irish Ale, and Guinness (to name a few), are quite popular as "breakfast beer". The place has so many television screens. I swear there were more TVs at Summer's than the entire town of Rosso, Mauritania.

I regularly go to Summer's to catch some of the big European soccer matchups: Liverpool, Arsenal, Sevilla, etc. The crowd at Summer's tends to lean towards being mostly Manchester Utd and Liverpool fans. There is always a mixture of Irish, English, Scottish, Latino, and African soccer fans throughout the week. (I love meeting people from Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Morocco, and Mali) People come to the restaurant, wearing their team's jersey, as well as soccer scarves. Last weekend's game of Chelsea vs Man Utd was the most packed crowd I've seen since the World Cup. Space eventually was limited to standing room only.

What makes this place unique is that it shows EVERY soccer game. Meaning, it shows the Asia Cup with Iraq winning. It also shows the African Nations Cup.

Summer's is located in the Courthouse neighborhood. The restaurant is quite interesting, because although there seems to be no one on the sidewalks at 7 am, the restaurant inside is full of life with crazy European soccer fans. My only regret is not being here for this summer's Euro Championships.


African Song of the Day:
K'naan is such an underrated rapper
Ba Sissoko is from Guinea

Ba Sissoko - Silani (feat. K'naan)

The Nationals new stadium opened this year. I was at their game few weeks ago, against the Atlanta Braves. The new stadium is quite posh! There was a big jumbotron TV screen, a Playstation Pavillion loaded with Guitar Hero booths, as well as expensive $7 dollars a bottle beer. How can anyone have a good time when drinking lite beer that costs $7 dollars? Lite beer, I said!

I am a big Atlanta fan, and it was fun cheering against the home team. I finally got to see John Smoltz pitch. He's a future Hall-of-Famer, along with Chipper Jones. I've been watching these guys play baseball ever since I lived in Mississippi. It's been a frustrating ride as a Braves fan, as we always make it to the playoffs, but hardly ever win the big game.





I went to the game with some of my Peace Corps friends. April had a friend from Mali visiting, and he had never seen an American sporting event. At first, he was amazed by the size of the stadium and the entire American sport culture. April bought him a Nationals cap, and even his first ever ballpark hotdog. However, after two innings of baseball, he fell asleep! I guess the excitement was too much for him. ***sarcasm***


African Song of the Day:
Daara J = best of Senegalese hip hop

Daara J - Number One

Washington D.C. is quite famous for its cherry blossom trees. (called 'sakura' trees in Japanese) In 1912, Japan gave 3,020 sakura trees as a gift to the United States to celebrate the nations' then-growing friendship. These trees have since lined the shores of the West Potomac Park, and the gift was renewed with another 3,800 trees in 1965.

Cherry blossoms reach full bloom in early spring, as a sign of the coming warm weather.




I swore some of the balloons in the Cherry Blossom Parade resembled the outside wrappers of Arizona Green Tea.

I haven't posted in such a long time. It was pretty much because I haven't found my life all that interesting since moving to D.C. Not exactly as cool to write about as much as Africa or China. But don't worry, once I move to Alaska next weekend, my livejournal will be lively once again. Perhaps I will do something crazy, like have a running photo count of every bear I see.


French Song of the Day:
since when did James Blunt collaborate with rappers?

Sinik - Je réalise (feat. James Blunt)

I'm going to Alaska!

w00t!
From Africa to Alaska...crazy.
I'm gonna try and take a picture of me doing an L-kick or bboy freeze in front of a bear.

This picture is from Katmai National Park, in Alaska. I applied for a park ranger position there a few weeks ago, and just finished up my interviews. The position will be as a French interpretor park ranger, telling French speaking tourists to stay away from the park's 2,000+ bear habitants.

How awesome is the picture?!?! The local park ranger sent me the photo yesterday. The seaplanes (and boats) are the only modes of transportation to and from the National Park. So, the bears are pretty much the greeting party.

I shall know by Monday if I get this position or not.
*crosses fingers*