HOW member Glenn Helgeland’s publishing company, Target Communications Outdoor Books, has released a new book titled “IN THE LAND OF THE BEAR” by Michigan-based outdoor writer Denny Geurink. This book provides an inside look at the excitement, mystery, danger, and adventure of hunting huge, aggressive brown bears and traveling in Russia from 1991 through 2011, a time of political turmoil when the Soviet Union was evolving into Russia.
In addition to hair-raising stories of lethal brown bear attacks on people and livestock, bears digging up coffins in cemeteries bears invading camps, and brown and grizzly bear hunting in general, the book contains
historical perspectives of what was happening politically at the time in Russia, detailing how the Siberian people lived, worked, survived … and how they viewed ordinary Americans (favorably).
In the early 1990s, the USSR wanted to boost its tourism industry in Siberia. Hunters and fishermen usually aren’t at the head of any list of tourist invitees, but in 1991 the Soviet Union, working with a U.S.-based travel agency, looked primarily at the spectacular hunting opportunities in Siberia and invited outdoor writer Denny Geurink on a moose and brown bear hunt. He had excellent success but, even more, enjoyed learning about and adapting to an unfamiliar culture and existence that, he felt, more-closely resembled the U.S. wild west from 150 to 175 years ago.
Geurink liked the total experience so much he became a hunting outfitter for the Siberian brown bear (the largest, most aggressive in the world), grizzly bear and moose hunts, plus incidental hunts for bighorn/snow sheep, wild Russian boar (the largest in the world), with now and then a grouse or wolf hunt added.
He was the first American guide/outfitter to take clients to the brown bear capital of the world. Nearly 70 percent of the world’s brown bear population is in Russia. Russia is a game-rich country because few residents are allowed to own firearms; thus there is little hunting activity.
For nearly 25 years Geurink lived adventure with a capital A, enjoying every minute of the hunts, the people, the culture, the political discussions, the travel throughout Russia … and in the process developing strong attachments to the Siberian people and the land, sometimes staying for 90-day stretches to serve groups of hunting clients. He traveled there more than 50 times and continues to hunt Siberia annually.
It is an outdoor adventure book above all, but hunting aspects are in the tales told of camp life, in-the-field activity, and bear attacks. This is an updated, expanded version of an earlier item Geurink wrote a few years ago.
To learn more about Target Communications Outdoor Books, visit www.targetcommbooks.com. You may also contact Glenn at Target Communications Outdoor Books, 10459 N. Wauwatosa Rd, Mequon, WI 53097. Phone: 262-242-3530, cell: 262-402-7668, email: glenn.helgeland@gmail.com.