Nanuq907
Where do you live in Alaska? I was up there for two weeks last year. Really enjoyed the trip.
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Gjs, I live outside of Anchorage way up in the mountains. I’ve got snowy peaks to the northeast east and south, and due north I’m looking at McKinley and Foraker. This is God’s country for sure.
Where did you visit while you were here? I notice all the road signs have new bullet holes in them. 🤪
Did you see any wild critters? We had 9 bears hanging around the house this spring waiting for the moose to drop their calves, now that the calves are mobile everyone’s left for higher elevations. But that’ll all change again when the salmon hit the creeks. Then the berries get ripe, then snow flies and we all hunker down again. God’s country.
Pffffffft, we hit 108mph at my house.
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Thanks for sharing the pictures. Beautiful. 0 -
We flew into Fairbanks. Stayed there for a few days then started a slow trip south seeing a lot of critters and views. Went to the park and got up close and personal with moose and bear. Our trip ended in anchorage when we boarded our ship and sailed south seeing glaciers and stopping in five different cities on the way to Vancouver. Alaska is definitely god country. Beauty in every direction you look. We were very fortunate to see mt. McKinley.
thank you for the great pictures. The bears were to close for my comfort. I think we are planning to come back and do another month in a motor home in a couple of years.
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Very beautiful! 0 -
gjshaw you’ll have to let me know next time you come! McKinley and the park are gorgeous, and there’s a whole ‘nuther half of the state still to see. I’m sure glad you enjoyed it!
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Thanks for the python post - and for understanding the intent in my replies to play devil's advocate or antagonist in presenting my opinion on the issue...
I do remember during my gunshop days we acquired a Winchester model 94 that had been both restocked and reblued...
The furniture was impeccable if modest - and the metal work was top notch not over buffed - no rounded edges or loss of sharp angles - but I imagine this was the first time the previous owner had attempted a professional rebuke because the gun came out lavender - a light eggplant purple with pink undertones...
It was a genuine saddle ring carbine and from the late 30's - but the funny hue of the finish meant it sat for years even when priced low - I considered picking it up myself but already had 3 model 94 lever actions...
Eventually a retired navy master machinist bought it and he nickel plated the gun and added Williams fiber optic fire sights and a large loop lever - making it his boat gun to accompany him when cruising about...
I did buy a gold plated CZ27 and a gold plated frommer stop and a silver plated SATA - done badly by a dentist in his basement...
I did rescue them and have them professionally refinished - along with maybe a dozen other guns that probably did not deserve it and will never pay back the investment if sold...
Nice bear pics - welcome aboard.
Mike
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Nanuq907: 31542014682523/comments/31541987618459
@gjshaw you’ll have to let me know next time you come! McKinley and the park are gorgeous, and there’s a whole ‘nuther half of the state still to see. I’m sure glad you enjoyed it!
I sure will. I would like to meet you and I have a bunch of questions about Alaska I would love to ask you . My big regrets is I didn’t ship any salmon home while I was there. We took the train ride from Whittier to anchorage and going over the many streams and brooks you could look down and see them stacked up like firewood Laying in the water. I wish I had fished cooper river while there. Maybe next trip. Also we have to come back to get another Ulu knife in anchorage. My wife put the one we got in our carry on and they took it at the airport.
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Yeah why do you think the ulu knives are so cheap? They get confiscated, resold, confiscated, resold, and on and on. :-D
But wait till you get a chance to use one! Nothing finer for slicing veggies or strips of meat for jerky. Try looking for Alaska Wild Berry Products online. They have a nice assortment and they ship them. Or next time you come, we’ll hit the farmer’s market downtown and you can pick up a nice handmade one with carved bone handle for $100.
Thank your lucky stars you didn’t buy salmon to ship home. Much of that is nasty pink salmon with the consistency of pate’. Look up New Sagaya online and you can buy whole headed, cleaned salmon, halibut and etc. and they’ll pack it in dry ice and overnight it to you. 10th and M seafoods is probably better than Sagaya but a little spendier.
So many times we’d hike out to those creeks in Portage valley and backpack out 100lbs of salmon in each pack. Quickly, before the bears smelled us. Or we just go out and hike and play. Here’s Byron glacier up by the lake on the Whittier side:
http://www.troop-215.com/byronglacier2003/byronglacier2003.htm
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Here’s an example of the stuff you can pick up at the farmers market. An obsidian knapped knife with carved handle by Brian Schuch or another handmade piece by Jens Klaar, couple of buddies of mine:
Native Alaskan obsidian, super rare up here.
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Midnight in Alaska, and the moose are tired after a long day. It’s astounding how fast that calf is growing up.
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Nanuq907, I lived on Jupiter drive for 17 years and went to Bear Valley often. My business partner lived on Toilsome Hill Rd. The views from upper hillside are indeed breathtaking. 0 -
I like those knives. I will look up the names of the salmon shippers you gave me. I Used to guide salmon fishing in upstate New York in the fall a couple of years and I know what you mean about getting 100lbs easily. I Would like to see the farmers market. We stayed at a large high rise hotel in downtown anchorage and only Walked up the street to a very nice restaurant so I didn’t get to see much of your city but I would like to.
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Jupiter drive! Hah, that’s about where I hit the moose last winter, on Abbott rd. I take the dogs to those XC trails behind Service every day and explore that huge tract. Uphill it butts into the Chugach and there it’s wide open for exploring. What is that, 6million acres? I’m looking right at the side of Flattop and I like to watch people climbing from my deck with binocs. What a small world.
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Was a up there at Elmendorf AFB for awhile. Neat part of the country to say the least. 0 -
Yeah they say "it's not Alaska but you can see it from here", but those are the folks that haven't tried it for themselves. I've frostbitten my ears until all the meat fell off the edges, I've fallen through frozen rivers up to my armpits, I've been hunted by a pack of wolves on a moonlit midnight ... all within the "city limits", all 6,000 square miles of them.
@asop did you get a chance to bivouac up in Ship Creek valley? They like to fly the boys in there for cold weather survival school. That's a heck of a neat hike, up and over the pass to Indian.0 -
Nanuq-No. Heard it was a haunted area . Went North to Seward and South to Palmer many times with stops in-between however. Back then the bars in Seward had balance scales at the door to weight out the prospector's golf nuggets when they came in the door! The old abandoned gold mines at the time were very interesting places. Mostly were communes and they appeared to be doing pretty well. With the 24 hr. sun scenario the heads of cabbage and lettuce were 3' in diameter. You were lucky to ever see the top of McKinley. Makes our Rockies look like foot hills 0 -
Yep that’s Alaska from a few years back! Chilkoots here in town and the Bird House down along the Arm come to mind. And big produce? We had a pumpkin at the fair last year nearly 1,000 lbs.
If you’re going to see the top of McKinley this is how to do it. What a beast of a plane! We flew into box canyons with our wings nearly scraping the sides, it looked like. Then at the head of the canyon just pull back on the stick, no more throttle needed, and just pop up and over into the next one. Amazing!
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This is a nice shot. What you can’t see in the foreground is the alder bush with a moose on one side and a bear on the other, circling each other.
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gjshaw. While we were UP there, we shipped our purchases home. Each shop & hotel had the flat rate boxes. We paid the rate & they mailed them. Saved us schlepping it & didn't worry about having it confiscated. I have & use a version of the ulu & it's great. 0 -
Toolman286: 31542014682523/comments/31541976419867
gjshaw. While we were UP there, we shipped our purchases home. Each shop & hotel had the flat rate boxes. We paid the rate & they mailed them. Saved us schlepping it & didn't worry about having it confiscated. I have & use a version of the ulu & it's great.When in Fairbanks I priced shipping three salmon back home and the store quoted me 213.40 for the salmon and shipping. I said no thank you at that price. I am going to set up an account with new Sagaya and see how that goes.
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I just checked 10th and M Seafoods, they have a Gillnet pack with red salmon or a Seiner pack with king salmon, and a long liner pack with skinned halibut. It's spendy but that includes overnight Fedex shipping in dry ice, so it will arrive in good condition. The reds are just hitting Bristol Bay hard, with 3 million fish caught on the 6th and steady numbers since then. If you can't get the Copper River reds, those Nushagak reds are the ones to have and they're flying off the boats right now. Kings and halibut are good but they'll be from Homer / lower Cook inlet and nothing really special. Nice fresh oily reds (sockeyes) are the way to go for flavor and this is the absolute peak of the season. 0 -
FCD, I agree, Alaska should be on every ones bucket list.
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Oh man, FCD, it’s like you and I grew up together. I bet the other bar on the Arm is Diamond Jim’s or the Turnagain House? And it sounds like you know a friend of mine, Chris von Imhof. Small world! There’s a new BBQ place down there now, the Arm Pit. Love the name and LOVE the BBQ!
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I lived on the corner of Jupiter and Abbott Rds. There was NOTHING behind my home until Robert Service High at that time. Now it is full of homes. I had many moose in my yard and once a HUGE sow Brown bear with a cub playing with the fishing float swing I had for the kids. When that sow stepped from behind a tree about 30 yards from me, eying the cub and me, she gave me the cold chills. I had my 30-06 on me but the size of that bear made me think I was holding a BB gun. Luck was with me, the cub went back to mommy and they sauntered off back towards Service High.
One evening I heard my front porch crunching and cracking. A cow moose had come up the steps, along the walkway and was standing 2 feet from my front door eating our Halloween pumpkin. She ignored me as I watched her eat the whole thing and head back off the porch crunching the wood deck the whole way. I miss Alaska, it is a way of life, not so much a location.3 -
Not Alaska, but my Moose story -
There were 4 of us on a 14 day Sea Kayaking trip in Penobscot Bay, Maine. From Island to Island offshore. (I was the Navigator. With all the charts and a large domed deck mounted Compass.) Was a great trip. On our final night on an Island before going back in to the mainland and our Vehicles, (I'm gonna say Monroe Island.) I elected to sleep away from the group at the edge of a sheer cliff with the Ocean pounding the rocks below. Just a pad, a bag inside a bivvy bag. Grass field just outside the woodline.
My Bud's told me the next morning that they heard some snorting that woke them up. (They were in the treeline about 50 yards away.) They all woke up and looked outside their tents. They "could clearly see by the full moon a full grown Moose snifing my head and then snorting." They were afraid to do anything. After about 15 minutes the Moose wandered away.
Monroe Island was a Nature preserve. We had hiked the circumference of the Island that evening. Lots of rocky cliffs, mainly heavily forested. I was first in line on one particular section. Came upon a deer skeleton with a sweet 8 point rack/skull. I have it above my mantle of my fireplace looking at it just now. A GREAT trip.
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One of many moose stories.... my Boy Scouts troop was always hunting “freeze points” trying to earn the coveted 300 Below patch. We decided to go for a quick camp out at -30F just for points and laid out tarps on the snow in a moonlit clearing surrounded by alders. We never use tents for winter camping. Waist deep snow, clear sky, lots of freeze points to be had. Along about O Dark Thirty I was snoozing away in my feathers and startled awake. Something didn’t sound right. I know enough to lie perfectly still in a mummy bag and just roll my eyes back and forth, so I did. Well the stars were all gone. Doggone it, I thought, it’s clouding up and warming up. I could feel the air was warmer on my nose than when I climbed in my bag. I was about to roll over but then I heard a stomach gurgle. I opened my eyes really wide and looked... and realized I was looking up at a moose’s belly. She was going around the edge of the clearing eating the tips off the alders, and she was close enough I could have blown air and stirred her belly hair. That was the last thing I needed, for her to start dancing around and kill me in my sleeping bag, so I laid perfectly still and she walked on by and off to another clearing. In the morning we all got up and everyone had Big Eyes as they looked at Mama Moose’s trail as she walked right past them having her midnight snack.
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