Latest Update: August 1, 2001 by Ben Marcus

22:43 PT WEDNESDAY AUGUST 1, 2001 MUNICIPAL CAMPGROUND, SMITHERS.

ODOMETER
TRIP METER

MONEY
Cash remaining from last night $ 75
Money drawn today $200
$275

Payment for Russian/English dictionary $ 80
Three play BC6/49 lotto tickerq $ 21
PaulÍs bakery $ 1.75
SchimmelÍs Fine Pastries $ 2.97
Campground fees $ 12.00
VanÍs news $ 7.50
$125.50

Cash remaining $131

Missing ( (275 Ü 125.50) Ü 131) $ 18.50

BC web computer time $ 4.82
BC web computer time $ 29.10
Smithers sausage factory $ 26.00
Canada post $ 37.98
Payment for Garmin GPS $360.00
Passport photos X3, Trojan-Enz X 2 Moutwash, toothpaste X 2, Ear plugs X 3
Akbero Balsam conditioner X 2
Alberto Balsam shampoo X 3
Komili caprice soap
Durance Savon Soap
Wet/Wild mascara protein
Goats milk soap X 2
Special Weapons magazine
Wet/Wild L/LNR
Wet/Wild E/LNR
Baciguent ointment X 2
Advil gel capsules
Hair brush
Tylenol flu
Taperfit foam earplugs $111.90

ItÍs 23:13, do you know where your rascal cat is? Mine is in the van, safe and sound, and not in the teeth of some nasty wild fox.

Ike just came in for a sleep. IÍm listening to jazz on CBC Two and working on various things. I just filled out my Russian visa application, so now the package is complete. I have three passport photos, my official letter of invitation and a photocopy of my passport info page. I also have a cover letter for my application and all the applications that George Nikitin is going to present en masse to the Consulate of the Russian Federation, hopefully within the next couple of days.

HereÍs the cover letter:

The Consulate of the Russian Federation
Visa application department
San Francisco, CA

August 1, 2001

To whom it may concern,

I am leading a two-week expedition of surfers/fishermen/adventurers to the Kamchatka Peninsula of Eastern Siberia at the end of August.

Our primary mission is to find good surfing waves along the Kamchatka Peninsula, exploring by helicopter, vehicle, foot and horseback, if necessary, a coastline that has not been seen by many outsiders, and has never been surfed, to my knowledge.

This expedition hopes to produce photos and a story (written by me) for Surfing Magazine, based in San Clemente, California. I am also hoping to send home daily photos and a daily journal for swell.com, a surfing-oriented website based in San Clemente.

This trip is leaving soon and some of the details are up in the air, due to circumstances beyond my control, unfortunately.

As of this date, the people who could be going to Kamchatka include: 1. Ken Achenbach: professional snowboarder and photographer from Canada
2. Hans Hagen: professional surfer from southern California.
3. Mark Healey: professional surfer from Hawaii.
4. Brock Little: professional surfer from Hawaii. Hollywood stuntman.
5. Keith Malloy: professional surfer from southern California.
6. Ben Marcus: writer and journalist from northern California.
7. Anthony Ruffo: professional surfer from northern California. Rogue.
8. William Sharp: professional photographer from southern California.
9. Jamie Sterling: professional surfer from Hawaii.
10. Darryl Virostko: professional surfer from northern California. Also a rogue.

We intend to depart Anchorage, Alaska on August 19, flying Magadan Airlines to Petropavlovsk. We will be met by our official guides-Yegor Churakov and Nikolay Zag from Wild Russia, and also our informal guide, Nikolay ??? from Travel Kamchatka in PetroPavlovsk.

We hope to hire a helicopter and explore the coastline north of PetroPavlovsk, as far as the Kronotski Preserve. We also might hire a vehicle and drive to Ust Kamchatka in the north, where I am told there is another helicopter for hire.

We intend to be in Kamchatka two weeks, and are hoping that the weather and ocean will cooperate.

We leave Kamchatka to return to Alaska on the Magadan Airlines flight on Sunday, September 2.

I also may produce articles for a number of American and foreign fishing magazines, if the fishing is good and we have time to go get them.

I am currently in Canada and am traveling up to Alaska and am hard to contact. I check e-mail every chance I get, if you want to send a message to: TheBenM@AOL.com.

I also have a message phone: 360-582-0061

I have asked George Nikitin to deliver all of the visa applications to your Consulate in San Francisco, as George is a native Russian speaker and can iron out any problems that might arise.

George NikitinÍs phone is: 415-564-5176.

George NikitinÍs e-mail is NikitinPhoto@earthlink.net

I would like to pay for all of these visa applications with my credit card, if possible.

Here is the information:

Mastercard XXXX XXX XX XXXX
Benjamin M. MarcusMbr< Expiration date: 03/03

If that is not possible, I will arrange for cash or a money order.

George Nikitin will be handling all this and Federal Expressing the Visas to Anchorage, Alaska. If he could have them by the 13th or 14th of August, we will have them by the 16th or 17th.

I appreciate all your help in this matter.

Thank you.

Ben Marcus

I e-mailed that and a lot of other stuff to all the members of the expeditionary force. Another guy from Santa Cruz wants to jump on, and Evan says the third photographer is definitely interested, but wonÍt be back from somewhere until mid-August. Hopefully we can get his Visa processed from where he is.

Spent a fiar bit of time and money in BC Web today. In retrospect, I should have bought that $25 Frequent Flyer card. I donÍt want to add up how much money I would have saved, but it would have been a lot. Oh well.

I spent some money today. Paid for the GPS units and the Russian/English electronic dictionary. I paid for the passport photos at (2 X $10) and while waiting for them to be processed, I went shopping in the pharmacy and spent a lot of dough on medicines and soaps and shampoo and ear plugs and whatever else-some for us, some for gifts.

I mailed some CARE packages back home and found out that Puralator does next-day air from Smithers. IÍll put all that Russian Visa stuff together tomorrow and sent it, and then I can scoot up to Kitwanga and up the Cassiar. Probably make for Dease Lake tomorrow, because thatÍs where my Russian/English deal is.

Not much else for me to do in Smithers. IÍll be back here in September/October, though, for steelhead season. I know where to stay now: in the Municipal Campground, although it would be nice if they had hot showers.

Today was another drive back and forth, go to the Internet CafÚ day. I got a bit done. That thing from Jack McCoy was nice, but Hawk got pissed at me for including the IM about Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He asked Lee Crane not to run it. Keith Malloy also got pissed at me for handing out his e-mail handle to everyone in the world. I guess chicks have been bugging him, poor fellow.

Ike stayed around the park all day, and it rained all day. I couldnÍt find him when I came back and walked over to the phone booth to see if he was hiding in that room. He wasnÍt. He came from out of the bush, soaking wet, but seemed okay.

Listening to the news today, I heard about a Russian sniper killing a Chechen hijacker. Wonder if he used the SV-98? ThatÍs not funn. IÍm on the ChechenÍs side on this one. Maybe I shouldnÍt say things like that.

Also got an e-mail about that Jessie Arbgoast kid who had his arm taken off by a shark. Turns out his uncle had been shark-fishing and hooked that shark and fought it for two hours. When he got it to the beach, a bunch of kids ran down to wrestle it into land. That;s why Jessie Arbogast lost an arm and nearly died. Bull sharks are the third most-dangerous. The uncle was so ashamed he tried to kill himself. And now the family is in the middle of a scandal, receiving money and sympathy for something that was really, really stupid, and could have been so easily avoided.

IÍd been reading a recent Time Magazine article about sharks, inspired by the Jesse Arbogast incident, and this is all weird and funny because I am writing a movie about sharks. It is half-finished in script form and IÍve got the rest of it synopsized. Now IÍmm going to distribute to a long list of people, get some feedback and try to write the finish.

I asked Mark Lyon if he would print and bind them for me. He said he was too busy but would see what Kinkos will charge. IÍll probably wait and go to the Kinkos in Fairbanks, on my way up to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. If I leave here tomorrow, I think IÍll have time to do that before I need to be in Anchorage on August 15th. Nephew David might still go with me. He says thereÍs a good skateboard park in Valdez.

So thatÍs about it. Time to hti the sack with my friend Ike. Tomorrow IÍm going to get everything done early and hit the road.

Hope this all works. Russia is going to be a blast.