Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

   For those of us who live in Alaska, hunting is a major part of our lives. It's not just the sport of bagging an animal; for many of us, how well we make it through the winter depends on the success of the hunt. Meat is expensive no matter where you live, but here in the bush, it's especially costly. For a lot of folks, there just aren't jobs available and so being able to shoot or catch what you eat is a necessity. Where we live, on Chichagof Island, there is a large deer population. Seven or eight years ago when we had twenty three feet of snow, many of the deer were wiped out, and for a few years the bag limit was cut back, as it should have been. It would have been disastrous if hunting had continued as it had been prior to the big snow. For the past three or four years though, the winters have been uncommonly mild, and the deer have rebounded and are abundant. For years I took my sons out hunting with me. Like many others here, we counted ...

  I took these pictures out back this morning. For those of you who can't tell or aren't familiar with the flora of Southeast Alaska, these are blueberry bushes. As you can see, there aren't any blueberries on them. In years past, I wouldn't even bother to pick any berries until now because of all the leaves. I kind of like to wait until after a frost so that in the process of picking I don't end up with more leaves than berries, plus there is a little white worm that inhabits some of the fruit, and I think the frost drives them out or at least kills them. In any event, I had planned on going out picking several weeks ago, but the fishing season was extended, which was a good thing, and the weather was really foul with lots of wind and rain, which wasn't such a good thing, and I missed my opportunity to go picking. Blast it! I really wanted to have a gallon or so of blueberries so I could make a few, or I guess more than a few, batches of ...

   My wife's co-worker was showing Jan these photos and when Jan mentioned them I thought it would be great to do a blog on something different. These are some of the neatest photos I've ever seen. They were taken by Johan Hinchman when he and a family friend, Bill Veeler, were out on a hunting excursion three or four weeks ago. They hiked up to Elephant Mountain and somewhere near the top ran across these caves. Obviously it was before the snow started to fall. Johan said it was readily apparent that the bears had been utilizing these caves in years gone by. The snow hadn't started falling yet or they might have been occupied. That's a scary thought. I wouldn't want to walk up on a sleeping bear in it's den. Some  years back one of the local fellows, I think it was Karl Greenewald, was doing some cleaning up on Graveyard Island, right across from town, when he came across a bear that had denned up on the island. I can't recall if the bea...

Several days ago my friend, Bob Pinard , asked if I wanted to go hunting. The weather was supposed to be good, and since I didn't have anything pressing, I agreed to go, although I had to think about it for a little bit. In years past when I've hunted with Bob it required my being up well before daylight, packing a ten thousand calorie lunch and taking enough ibuprofen to pre - empt the pain that I knew I would suffer after traipsing through the thicket, up mountains and down ravines. He always seemed to choose the very places that I would never even consider hunting. He's one tough fellow. At sixty-nine years old, he's got eleven years on me, but you would never know it. He seems to have the ability to shrug off pain and most challenges don't seem to bother him. Though he wouldn't approve of my saying anything, it's my blog, so I'll mention that he's one of the most generous people I've ever met. On the day we went out hunting we took his truck...

Jan and I are going to be going south for a few weeks, so I doubt that I will be posting anything on the blog until I get back- I don't know. I don't have a laptop computer, and I don't know what kind of hassle I would run into or if I will even have the time to work on it while we're gone. We have to go see the Moms. Mine is in Ohio and Jan's is in Wisconsin. I'm not looking forward to the plane ride down. It's quite the ordeal to leave here. We are taking a catamaran to Juneau tonight and spending a couple days there. I'd rather just fly over and be done with it, but the weather is unpredictable this time of year and we can't afford to miss our flight south. We leave Juneau and fly to Seattle, then to Minneapolis and finally to Columbus. It's an all night affair. Hopefully the plane won't be crowded and I'll be able to stretch out a little. Last time I flew, we were packed in like sardines and the rather plump fellow beside me was oozi...