I’ve been up here for almost 40 years. I left for a while to do some work to prepare the rest of my life for retirement. I’ve been fortunate to have traveled Alaska far more than most people who were born and grew up here. I’ve had a lot of interesting experiences, to some people my life has been bigger than life in general. Without knowing where all I’ve been it’s hard for some to understand.
As early as 1981 I flew out to King Salmon, where I met a guy with a Super Cub (with floats ) that flew me and a friend out on the Alaska Peninsula, for a Caribou hunt.
He landed us near what was called PBY lake. An old PBY had crashed into a lake and rested there since WWII (as I recall the story) we were actually closer to a lake (lots of lakes out there) we affectionately called duck $h1t lake. So named because when you boiled the water so you could drink it, you had to scrape the white foam off your cup. It was there it became obvious that when you go out to the bush you are literally taking your life in your hands.
Floats are necessary because of all the little lakes out there. The pilot said get your caribou as fast as you can, I think it’s going to freeze soon and I need to get you out. I actually ended up being out there for 10 days but not with 10 days of food, because we expected to be moved to another camp. I never made it to the other camp. Lived on gorp or oatmeal not both for several days.
Something to consider is that if your pilot goes down on the way home or coming back, who knows if anyone will notice. The closest I got to being picked up on our original schedule was 2 days.
So this doesn’t turn into a book, I’ll just list some of the places I visited that aren’t on the road system. Villages are either on a river or on the coast near the ocean. That’s because to travel to have to fly, take a riverboat or a boat most are just Lund boats or flat bottom boats. There’s no extra money in the village for what most of us would consider actual ocean boats.
Besides Barrow, Deadhorse, and Bethel, the places I was at the most, I was in
Saint Mary’s,
Mountain Village
I’ve been miles on the Yukon River, it took 50 gallon drums of fuel for a few trips.
Holy Cross
Kotzebue
Brooks Range
Nome
King Salmon
Illiamna
Naknek
As well as many few people even drive to.
You take a boat to Cordova so you can drive around there
You go to Canada to get back into Alaska to go to Haines
People have very little concept of the few roads here.
I said when you go out in the bush you can be taking your life in your hands. Bear in mind that people hunt off an ATV or side by side. If you can go there so can anyone else that have those. Or a boat, anyone with a boat can go the same place. People can get creative.
Some of us were going hunting in a special place but we had to cross a small but deep river. It was too deep for the ATV’s. So, we had an old, small Jon boat. So the first thing you do is ignore the weight restriction. Then we put a piece of 3/4” plywood across it and get 2 straps and cinch them up so the sides of the Jon boat don’t get too far out and drown you crossing the river with your ATV on the river. And someone is sitting on the ATV to add a little weight and drive off the plywood when you get across the river. Get unloaded and reloaded quick. Don’t forget you are totally disregarding that you’re 3X the weight limit. Not to mention when you come back you are adding a lot more weight with the moose you’re hauling.
The good thing is you learn something every time you go out. Like if you want to go to the Brooks Range, which is north of the Arctic Circle. First you fly, commercial to Kotzebue. Then you get hooked up with a pilot that flies you and your gear with 10 days worth of gear, food, and tents and 4 people out. Now, you scheduled with this pilot 8 month early to get on the schedule. So you get to Kotzebue and no one is waiting to meet you, and everyone is looking at you because you booked with this guy, and sent everyone’s deposit.
Finally a pickup is driving down the dirt road and skids to a stop. He asks if anyone is waiting for him. Then he asks so, what was your name, ok and what did you guys want to hunt? And you tell him, moose is the priority and if we get moose would like to try for Caribou. To cut the story a little shorter, he says he flies out that way nearly every day.
The first 3 days absolutely no moose sign so we put a tarp out so he can move us. Except he doesn’t make it out that way for another 11 days.
We have a slight side track that I forgot.
We could only land on one side of the river.
The best camp is on the other side of the river. When we get there the water is only higher than our knees. Took a few trips to get everything across the river.
Anyway we kept hunting and going out farther and farther.
Long and short, on the third moose the guy that shot it, came back to camp looking for help hauling it out. So we hiked the 3 miles to the moose (who shoots a moose 3 miles from camp, when you are walking?)
We come up over the hill to get the moose and the entire valley is crawling with caribou. We shot 5 of them. Obviously that makes a lot more trips back and forth.
By now the water is up to your crotch which is tricky when you’re packing seriously heavy loads across a fast river.
The pilot didn’t arrive the first day
The pilot didn’t arrive the second day
The pilot didn’t arrive the third day
The pilot didn’t arrive the fourth day
Finally the old man we brought with us said he’ll be here tomorrow. How does he know that? Our wives kept going to airport. Everyday and got tired of not knowing anything about what was going on.
The old man’s wife was given a heads up and she called the pilot and advised him that her husband had a heart condition and that he was out of medicine and if he died she would sue him for his business, his house and his plane and everything he was ever going to have.
Sure enough the plane arrived the next day and when the pilot landed the first words out of his mouth was “who’s sick?”
I’ve never been picked up on the day we’ve planned. The closest was 2 days late. Plan ahead!.
Sorry for the long post.
As early as 1981 I flew out to King Salmon, where I met a guy with a Super Cub (with floats ) that flew me and a friend out on the Alaska Peninsula, for a Caribou hunt.
He landed us near what was called PBY lake. An old PBY had crashed into a lake and rested there since WWII (as I recall the story) we were actually closer to a lake (lots of lakes out there) we affectionately called duck $h1t lake. So named because when you boiled the water so you could drink it, you had to scrape the white foam off your cup. It was there it became obvious that when you go out to the bush you are literally taking your life in your hands.
Floats are necessary because of all the little lakes out there. The pilot said get your caribou as fast as you can, I think it’s going to freeze soon and I need to get you out. I actually ended up being out there for 10 days but not with 10 days of food, because we expected to be moved to another camp. I never made it to the other camp. Lived on gorp or oatmeal not both for several days.
Something to consider is that if your pilot goes down on the way home or coming back, who knows if anyone will notice. The closest I got to being picked up on our original schedule was 2 days.
So this doesn’t turn into a book, I’ll just list some of the places I visited that aren’t on the road system. Villages are either on a river or on the coast near the ocean. That’s because to travel to have to fly, take a riverboat or a boat most are just Lund boats or flat bottom boats. There’s no extra money in the village for what most of us would consider actual ocean boats.
Besides Barrow, Deadhorse, and Bethel, the places I was at the most, I was in
Saint Mary’s,
Mountain Village
I’ve been miles on the Yukon River, it took 50 gallon drums of fuel for a few trips.
Holy Cross
Kotzebue
Brooks Range
Nome
King Salmon
Illiamna
Naknek
As well as many few people even drive to.
You take a boat to Cordova so you can drive around there
You go to Canada to get back into Alaska to go to Haines
People have very little concept of the few roads here.
I said when you go out in the bush you can be taking your life in your hands. Bear in mind that people hunt off an ATV or side by side. If you can go there so can anyone else that have those. Or a boat, anyone with a boat can go the same place. People can get creative.
Some of us were going hunting in a special place but we had to cross a small but deep river. It was too deep for the ATV’s. So, we had an old, small Jon boat. So the first thing you do is ignore the weight restriction. Then we put a piece of 3/4” plywood across it and get 2 straps and cinch them up so the sides of the Jon boat don’t get too far out and drown you crossing the river with your ATV on the river. And someone is sitting on the ATV to add a little weight and drive off the plywood when you get across the river. Get unloaded and reloaded quick. Don’t forget you are totally disregarding that you’re 3X the weight limit. Not to mention when you come back you are adding a lot more weight with the moose you’re hauling.
The good thing is you learn something every time you go out. Like if you want to go to the Brooks Range, which is north of the Arctic Circle. First you fly, commercial to Kotzebue. Then you get hooked up with a pilot that flies you and your gear with 10 days worth of gear, food, and tents and 4 people out. Now, you scheduled with this pilot 8 month early to get on the schedule. So you get to Kotzebue and no one is waiting to meet you, and everyone is looking at you because you booked with this guy, and sent everyone’s deposit.
Finally a pickup is driving down the dirt road and skids to a stop. He asks if anyone is waiting for him. Then he asks so, what was your name, ok and what did you guys want to hunt? And you tell him, moose is the priority and if we get moose would like to try for Caribou. To cut the story a little shorter, he says he flies out that way nearly every day.
The first 3 days absolutely no moose sign so we put a tarp out so he can move us. Except he doesn’t make it out that way for another 11 days.
We have a slight side track that I forgot.
We could only land on one side of the river.
The best camp is on the other side of the river. When we get there the water is only higher than our knees. Took a few trips to get everything across the river.
Anyway we kept hunting and going out farther and farther.
Long and short, on the third moose the guy that shot it, came back to camp looking for help hauling it out. So we hiked the 3 miles to the moose (who shoots a moose 3 miles from camp, when you are walking?)
We come up over the hill to get the moose and the entire valley is crawling with caribou. We shot 5 of them. Obviously that makes a lot more trips back and forth.
By now the water is up to your crotch which is tricky when you’re packing seriously heavy loads across a fast river.
The pilot didn’t arrive the first day
The pilot didn’t arrive the second day
The pilot didn’t arrive the third day
The pilot didn’t arrive the fourth day
Finally the old man we brought with us said he’ll be here tomorrow. How does he know that? Our wives kept going to airport. Everyday and got tired of not knowing anything about what was going on.
The old man’s wife was given a heads up and she called the pilot and advised him that her husband had a heart condition and that he was out of medicine and if he died she would sue him for his business, his house and his plane and everything he was ever going to have.
Sure enough the plane arrived the next day and when the pilot landed the first words out of his mouth was “who’s sick?”
I’ve never been picked up on the day we’ve planned. The closest was 2 days late. Plan ahead!.
Sorry for the long post.
