random-chunks-of-kori's-life

A brief update, i haven't written in a while, so i'll tell ya the cool stuff that's been goin on and leave out the boring details. Let me see... we had a few gorgeous sunny days, one of them was my day off and i went down to Moose Flats and laid out in my bakini, the first time this summer (and probably the last)! That night a grizzly bear came into our center, me n' vanessa spotted the dangerous fellow when we went out to feed the moose calf at midnight. He was having a swell time, entertaining himself by "playing" with our mallard ducklings, they however did not enjoy this new playmate. So without further delay, me and vanessa ran back in to get Mike, i ran up the stairs and yelled for him to get up. To my surprise and dismay he came barging out the door in nothing but a little speedo, i gave him the news and went back outside. By this time our large brown enemy had discovered a new target, Honeymoon, our little moose calf. The bear was banging against the metal fence when Mike came running out (fully clothed, except for shoes) with his thirty aut six rifle. He fired into the air and the grizz took off past our gift shop and luxurious porter potties. Kelly came tearing out in the old truck, mike jumped in the back, and i was hot on his heels, i was not going to be left behind on my first grizz hunt! Kicking up gravel we left everyone else in the dust. The grizz busted through the gate and got behind our brown bear enclosure, he was trapped in an alley between two enclosures. me n' mike ran back there after him. i asked mike how many cartidges he had left, (just thought it would be a good thing to know under the current circumstances) "two," he informed me. Then we saw him! trying to dig into the bear enclosure, mike fired another round into the dirt, and he took off further down the alley. me n mike were right on his tail, me in my flip flops and mike in his socks! We came around the corner and couldn't see him for a little while, makes your nerves alittle jumpy, then we spotted that fellow, he was trying to climb over the fence. he saw us and gave a little growl and started to come back down! Mike yelled for me to climb up in this old dump truck thing that was by us, the adrenaline was pumping but i tried my best to stay calm and find a handhold to pull myself up, mike fired our last cartridge...(into the air), the grizz decided to climb up over the fence. we met kelly on the road and then drove into the enclosure the bear had gone into. we found his tracks over another fence (outside our center), going into the river. The grizz was gone, pretty exciting night though, for sure.
He came back for his revenge a few nights later, he broke our coffee machine and broke into our barn. luckily we had started to put honeymoon and the ducklings out back at night, so they were not threatened. Mike started sleeping out in the truck with the rifle across his chest.
Moving on to the next event: me, Joel, Vanessa, and carolyn hiked Crow Pass, a 26 mile hike, we hiked three miles in, camped and then hiked 23 miles the next day. it was a cool hike, we saw some black bear and a moose. we crossed, fell, and scrambled across a river flowing directly from a glacier. very, very very cold. my brain and body were struggling to work for me by the time we reached the shore, but we got a fire started and changed into some dry clothes, then hiked the rest of the long way out. Good alaska adventure.
Just the other night me and keith hiked up a mountain in girdwood, we climbed about 3,700 feet in an hour and a half, pretty good workout. we camped on the top of the ridge on this little mossy spot. it was so pretty! the next morning we scrambled down the steep, slippery mountainside, ate a great breakfast, and then i rode on keith's tour bus back to the wildlife center and keith left with his tour. well, i think i've mentioned everything exciting that has happened lately. Farewell and goodnight