About Us

It all began in the summer of 2005 when we visited Alaska for the first time.  For three days of our trip we stayed at a magical place called Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park and it forever changed our lives.  Although we had been living in the Canadian Rockies for the summer and had seen many grizzly bears nothing prepared us for the experience that awaited us in Katmai.  From the moment we stepped off of the float plane we were surrounded by giant grizzly bears wandering around everywhere.  After a quick 20 minute bear safety presentation by the national park service we were free to wonder around on our own with wild grizzly bears literally everywhere.  This was a testament to how much the park service trusts these bears!  We quickly came to realize that everything we had ever been taught about grizzlies was wrong.  Grizzlies have been demonized so much by our culture it's impossible to separate fact from fiction.  By the end of our stay at Brooks my wife Jessica and I had vowed to dedicate our lives to protecting these amazing animals.

The second summer (2006) we visited Alaska again except this time our focus was almost entirely on being with the bears in Katmai. We spent a week on the Katmai coast staying at a primitive tent-based wilderness camp followed by another week further inland camping at Brooks Camp.  We learned much during this second summer and by the end of our trip we felt that we were ready to begin observing the bears of Katmai completely on our own without the supervision of guides and park rangers.  Camping solo with the grizzlies on the Katmai coast was our goal; however, as you can imagine this is a very serious undertaking.  Only a handful of people have ever camped on the Katmai coast.  It's an extremely difficult place to camp and everything about the Katmai coast is extreme.  The weather is lengendary with winds reaching 75-100mph.  Huge storms can roll in leaving you trapped in your tent for 4-7 days praying your tent doesn't blow away.  The tides are some of the largest tides in the world and the coast constantly floods and drains twice a day making all the waterways oscillate between creeks and raging rivers.  Active volcanoes are numerous and the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century occured in Katmai.  The Katmai coast is one of the remotest, most difficult places in the world to reach and there is absolutely no human civilization for hundreds of miles any direction.  If you get hurt it might be days before anyone can come to your aid because the severe weather sometimes makes it impossible for either a plane or a boat to even reach you.  Oh yeah, and of course there are huge grizzly bears everywhere which keeps things interesting.  We knew we had the ability to do it and to do it safely even though everyone we talked to warned us of all the dangers.   After our second summer with the bears we knew that a mere two week vacation wasn't enough time with them and that we had to find a way to be with them throughout the summer.

During the winter of 06-07 we began planning how we could spend the entire next summer in Alaska observing grizzlies in Katmai. Several years earlier my employer gave me a sabbatical allowing us to spend the summer in the Canadian Rockies.  This was a one time deal so we knew a sabbatical was no longer an option so we finally just made the decision to quit our jobs and move to Alaska on a permanent basis.  We had been working part-time on a business venture for about a year and we had gotten far enough along that we felt confident in quitting our jobs.  In fact, we're confident that soon this venture will be generating considerable amounts of money to be used for bear conservation!  After our first trip in 2005 we knew we wanted to help protect bears but we weren't sure exactly how best to do that.  Eventually we came to the conclusion that the best way for us to help bears was to find a way to generate lots of money to be used for their conservation.  As much as I hate it, the world is all about money.  So we decided to find a way to make this happen and I believe we have.

The other key to us being able to move to Alaska is that we discovered a very special town called Homer which is located on the coast about five hours south of Anchorage.  Most Alaskan towns are extremely conservative with dead animals hanging on just about every wall possible.  Homer is not only the most beautiful town in the world but its also very liberal (Homer is known for fishing, art, and hippies) and for Alaska there are relatively few dead animals hanging on the walls!  It's also got the best weather in all of Alaska.  Of course, the main attraction with Homer for us is that its one of the three towns that you can fly from to reach Katmai National Park (the other two being King Salmon and Kodiak, neither of which are towns we could ever live).  So we sold basically everything we own and bought a VW camper van and in April 2007 we spent over two weeks traveling 4000 miles from the desert of Tucson, Arizona all the way to Homer, Alaska.

Our goal for our first summer in Alaska was to work our way up to being able to camp solo on the Katmai coast maybe once by the end of the season.  We far exceeded this goal.  Lucky for us we ended up hooking up with  the best bear viewing guide working on the Katmai coast, Brad Josephs.  Brad is a guide for an operation that does bear viewing along the Katmai coast from a boat.  No one knows the Katmai coast like Brad and working from a boat allows him to visit all of the bays along the coast.  He knew many of the bears on an intimate level having observed them for many years.  Brad knew of our lofty goals and agreed to train us to be able to safely camp in such a remote, rugged place with so many bears.  We spent a week in June camping on the Katmai coast with Brad camping nearby.  We learned so much during this trip not only about the bears but also the plant life, birds and general ecology of Katmai. After a few days Brad was confident that we had what it took to be out there and to be safe so he left a day early so that we would get a full day completely on our own.  Brad later made a comment that he has as much confidence in our abilities as any of the bear viewing guides working in Katmai.  Our first day on our own was beyond amazing and that day we had very special encounters with both Queen and King.  We came back in July for our first trip completely on our own with the bears.  We made many improvements for our second camping trip including a much better tent, a mosquito net cooking area, more food, and chest high waders that allowed us to cross the many streams running through the meadow without being restricted to low tide crossings.  We felt so at home and at last we were observing grizzly bears up close completely on our own.  Our first solo trip was a huge success.  We came back again in August and September each time learning more.

We use every safety precaution possible.  Our tent is surrounded by a portable electric fence.  All food items are stored in bear proof containers that are kept outside of the fence except when being used.  We have yet to have any bears express any interest whatsoever in our campsite, or food, while we were at the camp.  In fact, you can safely eat your lunch while out in the field watching bears without any concern at all. They've never been taught that human food is an option so they don't even pay you any attention.  We also carry marine flares at all times, which we feel is the best method to deter an overly curious, or overly aggressive bear.  As a backup we also carry bear spray.  We have yet to use either.  One bear guide in the area said he has used a flare only one time in eight years of guiding.  We also carry a satellite phone and marine radios and by far the most dangerous aspect of camping on the Katmai coast is the remoteness so communication devices such as these are almost essential.  

Its been a long and circuitous route to have finally found what we know is our “life's work” – living with bears, learning about them, getting to know them, writing about them, and fighting to protect them.

- John

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Jessica has a BA in Spanish Art History from the University of Virginia, and a Masters in Women's Studies from the University of Arizona.  She is also a certified Hatha Yoga Instructor and Certified Reflexologist.  She has worked as a university instructor, researcher, forensic examiner manager, professional translator, piano teacher, reflexologist, and yoga teacher.  When not writing about bears, she now works as a freelance book review writer.  She has also worked as a volunteer wildlife rehabilitator for over two years in Tucson, AZ.  She worked and trained at the Tucson Wildlife Center which specializes in the rehabilitation and release of predators.

John has a MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas.  He was a senior integrated circuit design engineer for almost 10 years before quitting to move to Alaska.  He now runs a business with a goal to generate money for bear conservation.