Stories
A Blue Thriller Morning on the Dalton Trail
On May 18th, 1983, at 34 years of age, I experienced one of the most astonishing bear encounters of my long, rewarding career as a logger, prospector, fur trapper, and big-game hunting guide in Alaska. It happened on a beautiful, blue-thriller spring morning deep in a Southeast Alaska forest while searching for remnants of the historical goldrush era, Dalton Trail. First pioneered in 1896, the route stretched 300 miles from coastal northern Southeast Alaska to the Yukon Region of Interior Canada. The Dalton Trail’s improbable existence shaped stand-alone chapters in Canadian and Alaskan history, the local Haines community, the Tlingit Native Village of Klukwan, and the nearby Porcupine Mining District.
Morning Rush Hour on the Fish Creeks
In August 1999, preparations for guiding my first brown bear hunt of the fall season required two days of clearing logjams with a chainsaw, enabling airboat access to my most remote hunting location. Days later, I returned to clean and rake my paths, leading to the chum salmon spawning beds that always attract bears. Then I mounted two tree stands overlooking a convergence of game trails and stream features idyllic for archery hunting. On the return downriver, I inspected my two emergency camps maintained along the way.