Abandoned settlement "Kronoki".

In winter.

And in fall.

In the middle of last century this town was very busy. There was seismological base here, military base, Kronotsky Nature reserve station. Many expeditions have started from here. The buildings have extended for a mile and a half along the coast line. Nowadays only ranger and weather station are active, the rest is abandoned. The Nature reigns here, and humans are only present to observe.

Originally posted at  http://shpilenok.livejournal.com/149469.html and  http://shpilenok.livejournal.com/167606.html

Kamchatka February dreams...

The trees on this picture are Erman's birch trees. Below is a close up picture of them from Kurile Nature Reserve, and also, using the tag Erman's birch you can read my other stories of this amazingly beautiful tree, my favorite tree.



And below are more views of Kamchatka peninsula...

... and Pacific ocean in February...

.

Bear trails.

Bears are constantly on the move throughout their life. When travelling for large distances they use a system of trails that is believed to be several hundred years old. This system optimally connects their various hunting grounds and hibernation places.




The bear trail system is especially dense and entangled around salmon spawning rivers.




The ground under the trails is strongly compacted through the years by the paws of these heavy animals. Sometimes the grounds are so tight that you won’t even see the claw marks. It is often much easier to use these bear than going through virgin tundra for humans. However, there are certain drawbacks in such travel, for example, sudden close encounters with rightful owners of this system, the bears, are very frequent, especially in the places with tall grass around.




These are the Kronotsky Nature Reserve rangers on a bear trail. They are alert and armed with signal flairs. Usually, bears are very polite and give right of way to humans despite the fact that they are rightful owners of these roads of tundra.

Kutkhiny Baty: the canoes used by Gods...

This is how famous "Kutkhiny Baty", "obelisks" made of pumice and resembling gigantic canoes left to dry, look like from a helicopter. Each "boat" is approximately 16 stories tall.

According to ltelmen's legend, Kutkhu - the Lord and the Creator of Kamchatka - used to live on the Kurile Lake for some time, and used to go fishing on the lake and to the ocean in these canoes. Before leaving Kamchatka, Kutkhu put up his boats ("Baty"), and since then this place has been considered sacred among the locals.

Settling at a new place.

In the center of the picture is the Grassy Cape with a ranger station and a visitor station on it.

Yesterday I arrived at my new place of work. Actually, it is a old new place, because in the past years I spent many months working as a ranger on the Kuril Lake in Southern Kamchatka Wildlife Refuge. I've in different parts of the Refuge in different seasons. Here in my blog I published many stories about this place and even wrote a photo-book about this lake. My colleage and very talented photographer, Alexey Bezrukov, wrote a lot about this lake too when he spent two years here with his family also working as a ranger. I bet that both Alexey and his wife Tatyana are missing local bears on their new assignment on the Baikal Lake.

The ranger station at the Grassy Cape is my favorite place on the Kuril Lake. This place has the highest density of brown bears in Russia. During this year there were over a thousand bears recorded around the lake. Even with my own eyes I've seen over a hundred of bears per day on many occasions. Even today I've seen at least couple of dosens of them from the window. Therefore in the coming weeks prepare yourself to see many bears in my blog!

How did I end up coming here to work? Well, the tourists season is coming to an end. The season of bad weather is coming. The rangers who work here are going to take vacations during this time. Fall with it's «nasty» weather is my favorite time of year. So I am taking this opportunity to substitute unti the winter comes. In addition to being my favorite place during my favorite weather, this ranger station has the fastest sattelite internet setup in the whole park. That means that you will learn about the local wildlife news in real time!


On this picture you can see the whole station: on the left there are two ranger houses. The larger building to the right is a hotel for visitors. All the buildings are connected by wooden trails. The green square is a helipad.

It is real winter on the mountaintops already...

Yesterday on my way to the Southern Kamchatka Wildlife Refuge I saw Gorelyi Volcano. Everyting that is above 16 hundred feet is already white with snow.

Originally posted at На вулканах уже зима...

Caldera of Uzon Volcano.

This is Chloride Lake in Uzon Caldera as it can be seen from a landing helicopter.



And this is a ranger station in Uzon Calder.

Kamchatkan fall as seen from a helicopter.

Air way from Petropavlovs-Kamchatsky to Kronotsky nature reserve passes by Karymsky volcano. It is the smallest volcano (1,536 m or 5,039 ft), but the most "hard-working" one.



Click below to see several more areal pictures of the fall colors this year in Kamchatka.



Fall 2012 on volcanic plateau.


Under fall clouds.

Fall in alpine tundra.

Originally posted by at Осень в горных тундрах.

My rough Kamchatka, we will meet again....

Today I made it to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the capital of Kamchatka region. Tomorrow, most likely, I will be flying towards Moscow and then back to my homeland, Bryansky Les. Thank you, my readers, for your support and warm words during this expedition. And we'll meet again soon!

And on the picture are the places that I left today: Krasheninnikov volcano on the foreground, then Kronotsky volcano and Kronotsky Lake. On the background there is steaming Kizimen Volcano and farther back, barely visible, there is Klyuchevskaya Sopka and other volcanoes in that group.

Good bye, Kamchatka!

Originally posted by at "Терпкая Камчатка, до свидания..."

Looking to the East...

Originally posted at Доброе утро из Кроноцкого заповедника!

 

Good morning from Kronotsky Nature Reserve!

This is the areal view of the tundra to the East of my station, in the direction of the Pacific ocean. This is the Hryukinka river right under the helicopter, and farther away - the Kronotskaya river, and then the Pacific ocean.  

"The White Silence"

Originally posted at Доброе утро из Кроноцкого заповедника!

Good morning from Kronotsky Nature Reserve!

This is another "cold" photo for the hot summer day. The Kronotsky Peninsula looks like this in winter: the white silence.

The principal tree of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve.

Originally posted by at Главное дерево заповедника.



Erman's birch is "the principal" tree of the reserve, and even the whole eastern Kamchatka. Not many people from outside know about it. I will not provide much biological details, if interested, you can easily look it up. I just want to show you this tree, fantastically tenacious of life. I fell in love with it while living on Peninsula.



 
Erman's birch in the Uzon volcano Caldera.


And these are the birch trees that were twisted by the winds at the Pacific ocean coastline.


On the upper boundary of forest line the Erman's birch can exist in this form.


Birch trees near my cabin.


And this group of trees, that grow on the Hryunkina river banks, I observe and photograph in different seasons and weather conditions for several years in a row.


These fanciful twists are common for Erman's birch. (My apologies for the fox offtopic).


This is how the birch trees forest looks like in October.


Sparse growth of Erman's birch trees from a helicopter.