Living in Wild Alaska: bear

Monday, May 6, 2013

A One Bear Day or Musings From the Front of the Skiff

You saw the new front door. It has been four days of high winds, hail, rain, sleet, the whole gamut of nasty weather that keeps us pinned down in the cabin so we were ready to go out even though it was still a heavy mist.

We were boating around the outer islands looking for treasures which is what we often do after high winds. Not everybody ties things down and not everything that is tied down stays. Heck, we often find things that we lost after a blow.

So, there I am standing in the front of our skiff perusing the shore lines and I am thinking of Dad Ryggs. A long time ago I bought him a mug that he loved. Printed on it was, " You can always tell a Norwegian, but you can't tell him much"!

Ryggses are Norwegian. But, I am thinking, you can always tell an Alaskan too, by the way they stand up in their boats. Now granted, I haven't been around a lot of boaters before here except lake ski boats and you DON"T stand up in those.

Now local Alaskans ( I would say native but around here natives are Native) always stand up in their boats be it large fishing boats down to 12 footer skiffs with hand tillers. I have seen them put extensions on the tillers so that they can steer while standing.

So, when we got our own boat I started practicing standing. It is a little tricky what with the wind, waves, and a husband that isn't above jerking the steering wheel.

I learned that it is all in your stance. You gotta stand wide with slightly bent knees, loose hips, and sway with the movement, kinda like riding a horse without the smell.

By now I am pretty good at standing and ready to move on to phase II. It is about then that I realize that I don't know what phase II is. Why am I standing here??? Am I looking for whale? rocks? rogue logs? the next island? Am I to be ready to bale out at any second?

Why do Local Alaskans stand up in their boats?

Oh, and while we were out there on the water we saw our first bear of the year. It was a really pretty, velvety black one, seemed rather big.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Looking Back ......Alaska

Looking back at Alaska from America (as we call up there) we live and do things a little different. When we listen ..... we hear silence except for the wind blowing through the trees or an eagle screeching time to time.

We hunt, fish and trap for most of our food. When we get company visiting from time to time we hang on every word ......cause we may not see them again for quite a while.

The only way to visit us is by sea plane or boat and we wouldn't have it any other way.

You can't run down to the corner store and be back in 15minutes, we plan our trips to town and it takes all day.

We love to have friends and family come visit us so we can share what it's like living in the wilderness.

We can share where the best fishing holes are and watch whales spouting off (we call it whale smoke) in the distance and sometimes up close too....

The cost of living is higher here than it is in America ....but we don't get anywhere to spend money as often so in the long run it seems to even out I think.

It's a simple life ....living off the grid in a remote area away from the rat race....but who really needs all the stress.....like traffic jams, long lines in the stores, little ticky tacky houses built on top of each other......not to mention the crazy's out there.......enough on that.....we will be outa here soon and back home to the wilderness.....

......hope you enjoy the pictures (there's a lot of them so it may take a while to load if you have a slow connection).

You are always welcome at our fire...

Just have to warn you .....once you visit Alaska it is hard to go back to the way you were before.

Cape Fox....visiting the big city....

Fishing fleet is in Craig for a couple days.

Road to town in the winters....chains are mandatory

Making the run to town on winter day.

Sitka Blacktail buck.

Bear at Settlers Cove creek.....great salmon stream in the fall.

Char and Linn at our cabin.

Bear and Char exploring.

Char arriving.

Char as co-pilot

Corn dogs...a treat for lunch break.

Fog bow

Ben and Dale ....stopped in for some oysters while camping outa their boat for a couple months. Ben packing.....(44 mag) ...they camped in Kahli Cove for a couple days.