Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

    I whine quite a bit about getting older. There isn't a whole lot about attaining the "golden years" that I find very golden. Maybe they're called that because all the gold you might have been lucky enough to accumulate when you were working is now spent on medicine and doctor visits. There is one very good thing though about being retired, and that is, while everyone else is out trying to make a living, I have time to go to some of the places that others can't access during the week because they're at work. This past Friday, Jan and decided to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather and take a drive out to Freshwater Bay. It's located down Chatham Strait, and if I were to take my boat down there, it would take me at least six hours to get there. By road it's only 28 miles. Even so, it still took us the better part of two hours. There is a lot of loose gravel and pot holes, to say nothing of multiple blind curves and hill...

   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'm trying to do this blog post for the fourth time today. The first time I had something that I wanted, or at least I had a good start on it, when I hit the wrong key and got a message that asked me a question- do I want to do this or that. Hell, I don't know. The computer wanted a yes or no answer. What the heck, I had a 50/50 chance of getting it right, so I said yes. It wiped out all my work. Go figure. The next two tries I didn't like, so I wiped them out myself. So here I am, I've already eaten my supper and watched the last presidential debate. I've got my coffee here with me on the desk and I'm ready to go, but for reasons I can't comprehend, I'm typing faster than the words are showing up on the screen, so it's a hurry up and wait scenario. I feel like I'm back in the navy. Oh well, things could be worse.   The fellow in the top picture is my friend Bob Pinard. We met just over thirty-three years ago when he and his fa...

I was down at the cannery several weeks ago taking pictures for an article on hunting that I wanted to send to an online magazine. I had to walk the beach because the site where I wanted to go was closed to the public. The beach however is owned by the state. When I came around the corner I saw six or eight mature bald eagles crowded around this carcass. As I got closer they flew off, one by one. This guy was a little more brave or hungry though, so I was able to get a shot. From what I could tell, this was a young deer. I assume it may have starved. We've had a lot of snow this year and he may not have been able to get around in the woods. When that happens the deer go to the beach and feed on kelp. I understand that it isn't good for them to eat too much of it. That may have been what happened to this one. Fortunately, in nature nothing goes to waste. The death of this deer will mean life to a number of eagles and maybe minks and martens. Who knows, a bear may even have a...