Region
Beringia
 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

I am moving across the tundra quickly, because about a mile out a gyrfalcon is beating its wings above a cliff, and I want to see it close up before it soars beyond the bald mountains.  With my eyes to the sky, I barely realize I’ve just breached an abandoned quarry. Things just start to happen so fast – the surprised giant wakes and stands in defiance.  His brown, shaggy coat droops to his knees, and those giant horns face me. 

My friends say I am jumpy around wild animals – this may be true, but can you blame me?  He’s about thirty feet away – do I run?  Moose, yes.  Bear, no.  But a muskox?  The jeep is about a half-mile away.  He’ll win the charge to the Jeep, I’ll win a bolt directly to the gravel road, which is much closer than the Jeep.   

Seconds pass, he’s not charging.  I give him a second look; is he more nervous than me? 

 

 
 

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ArrowCoastal grasses along Safety Sound.



 

 


     
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Text, photographs, illustrations and web design ©2009 Erik Gauger


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