Ratdog68
LSB Official Story Teller
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Six weeks ago, after landing in Deadhorse, and on the 50 mile bus ride to get to work... I hear on the radio that we have a visitor at the island's west boat ramp. A polar bear !!! Sweet !!! Love watchin' Nanook !!
The hovercraft lands near the west ramp of our little island, because the bear has moved to the east side of the island... moving around the south shore. I walk to camp and gear up, heading to the east ramp to relieve my alternate.
It went something like this. Everyone KNOWS... you can't fool the NOSE of Nanook. He can smell "dinner" 20-40 miles away !!! Wind out of the east, Nanook catches the smell of open water. He follows his nose. He finds our little island, and a concentration of odd smells (diesel exhaust, primarily), but, smells open water too ! He wanders to the south shore of the island... and the smell of diesel fumes drops, the smell of open water increases.
Ice Road construction is in full swing. Equipment is lined up, each one drilling down with an auger, then pumping sea water up to flood the ice. Each drilling spot leaves a "mole hill" of ice chip and water. In the -20F ambient temp weather, life is good for the Ice Road crew. The ice road begins 3.5 miles south of us (shore) and comes north to our island, hangs a left and comes up our east ramp, onto the island.
Nanook rounds the south end of our island and has hit the mother-load jackpot !!!! Look at all those breathing holes !!! He's gonna eat GOOD for a while !!! Onto his belly goes the bear, doing the belly crawl up to the first breathing hole... peers in, NO scent of seals. No worries, there's another breathing hole over there... belly crawls to the next one, NO scent of seals there either. On to the next one, and the next one... NO scent of seals !!!! He finally gets up and plods along from hole to hole, hoping to find the scent of seal. Nuttin' but ice chip mole hills made by ice road crews. I watched him mosey on for a few hours as he headed east.
That was my only bear action in the last six weeks.
The hovercraft lands near the west ramp of our little island, because the bear has moved to the east side of the island... moving around the south shore. I walk to camp and gear up, heading to the east ramp to relieve my alternate.
It went something like this. Everyone KNOWS... you can't fool the NOSE of Nanook. He can smell "dinner" 20-40 miles away !!! Wind out of the east, Nanook catches the smell of open water. He follows his nose. He finds our little island, and a concentration of odd smells (diesel exhaust, primarily), but, smells open water too ! He wanders to the south shore of the island... and the smell of diesel fumes drops, the smell of open water increases.
Ice Road construction is in full swing. Equipment is lined up, each one drilling down with an auger, then pumping sea water up to flood the ice. Each drilling spot leaves a "mole hill" of ice chip and water. In the -20F ambient temp weather, life is good for the Ice Road crew. The ice road begins 3.5 miles south of us (shore) and comes north to our island, hangs a left and comes up our east ramp, onto the island.
Nanook rounds the south end of our island and has hit the mother-load jackpot !!!! Look at all those breathing holes !!! He's gonna eat GOOD for a while !!! Onto his belly goes the bear, doing the belly crawl up to the first breathing hole... peers in, NO scent of seals. No worries, there's another breathing hole over there... belly crawls to the next one, NO scent of seals there either. On to the next one, and the next one... NO scent of seals !!!! He finally gets up and plods along from hole to hole, hoping to find the scent of seal. Nuttin' but ice chip mole hills made by ice road crews. I watched him mosey on for a few hours as he headed east.
That was my only bear action in the last six weeks.
