I am sitting here in a hotel room in Osh located in Kyrgyzstan. I am joined on this hunt by Kelly Jensen, Christensen Arms of Gunnison, Utah. Kelly is on a mission assigned by his best friend and President of Christensen Arms, John Mogel, to obtain video footage of this hunt to produce a TV show. This is Kelly's first trip abroad. It has been exciting just watching his reaction to the cultural differences experienced these past three days.

I booked this hunt once again with Americana Expeditions, Inc., of Edmonton, Alberta, run by Pat, Nick and Dan Frederick. A special thanks goes to Karen for all her assistance with travel arrangements, Visas, etc.

Kelly and I departed the U.S. on Saturday, February 17th, Kelly from Salt Lake via JFK to Moscow, and I from Charleston, WV via Atlanta to Moscow. We both arrived in Moscow on Sunday morning, February 18 within 45 minutes of each other, and to our bad luck, Kelly's luggage did not leave Delta's gate in N.Y. We were met by Yuri�'s Baristnakov, a fine assistant to our outfitter, and master guide, Yuri Matison. Since we had a 10-hour layover, Kelly and I checked into a local hotel to catch a few hours sleep before catching our 10:00 p.m. flight to Biskek, capital of Kyrgyzstan and home of Manas Air Base, where our U.S. Afghanistan air force operations are located.

Kelly and I flew all night and arrived in Biskek at 6:00 a.m. where we were met by Yuri�'s operations man, Tuboltosey (John) Eygeny, and a nice young lady interpreter, Anna. After lunch and checking into a local hotel, Anna and a local driver took us on a tour of Biskek. It was much nicer and cleaner than when I was here18 months ago, following the riots and overthrow of the government.

Next morning, John and Anna picked us up and took us to the airport with hopes that Kelly�s luggage would make it; it did, and off to Osh we went where we were met by my old friend, Boriz Popov and driver, Bic (Sale�s brother). After touring Osh with a friendly interpreter and visiting two great old museums and being offered by some Russian guy to sell me his wife, we were off on our 10-hour drive from Osh to Soudy Camp on Lake Karakul, passing through seven check points. We arrived at 11:00 p.m.