ChiefsPlanet - View Single Post - Life -- Scared in the wilderness

frozenchief · 10-06-2018, 01:24 PM

I have a few. Lived in Alaska for almost 20 years.

Doing a float trip down the Goodnews River and a couple of buddies. Camping on an island one night and we hear something walking in the water. We get out of the tent and it’s a big brown bear about 15 feet away. We were shining flashlights on it* and it was wondering what we were doing. After several tense moments, I fired my pistol in the air and it ran away.

Another time, I was to start a trial on 9/11/01. There had been a bear coming through our yard for a few days. I got home about 9:30 that night because I’d been prepping for trial. And the bear was in the yard. We lived on a lake and there was a small ridge that went down to the lake. There were stairs down to the “beach” where we had a dock and kept our boat. The boat was an old beater Lund that leaked so I kept it on the shore. Made sure it wouldn’t sink.

Anyway, the bear sees the headlights of the car and heads down to the beach. I get out of my car and I can hear him down by the boat, probably because I’d caught fish that weekend and the smell was in the boat. My girls were young (5 and 3) and I didn’t want the bear hanging around anymore so I grabbed a rifle and a flashlight and headed down the stairs holding the flashlight and the front stock in my left hand, right hand holding business end of the rifle. That was when I was the most ... amped up. I’m sweeping that flashlight around and see the bear. In my boat. I get to the bottom of the stairs and that bear is quite close, looking at me and grunting. I yelled at the bear and it’s just looking at me. So I fired my rifle at the bear and it ran away.

I’ve had other encounters with bears at the dump or while fishing or hiking. Couple of weeks ago was fishing and we saw about a dozen bears during the trip but they were pretty chill. Those were the two scariest ones. Otherwise, living in SW Alaska, you have lots of bear stories. This is going to be a lengthy post. Adding more bear stories would just make it much longer.

I have encountered tons of moose. Moose are a problem if: 1) it’s a cow with a young calf, usually Late April and May, so don’t get close, or 2) a rutting bull. They are unpredictable but that’s usually late September and October. Otherwise, moose are generally pretty chill. Had a friend pet one that was bedded down in thr snow while we were riding snow machines.

Scariest time of my life, though, had nothing to do with bears or moose. Well, moose were involved indirectly. A friend of mine was a teacher in our town (Aleknagik, just north of Dillingham where I worked). He shot a moose in the December season but he couldn’t get it all packed the day he shot it. Temperature was cold so spoilage wasn’t an issue. Bears would be hibernating. There was a Christmas program at school the day after he shot the moose and my daughter was in it so he asked if I could bring my snow machine sled (his sled was smaller) and we could get the rest of the moose. I said sure.

So after the event, we put on our cold weather gear and go for this moose. It’s dark. We have headlights though, and we know the way, but we don’t have a GPS. Temperature is in the single digits and dropping but we’ve got plenty of layers. Besides, it’s a quick trip up, grab the moose and come back.

The first part of the trail is through woods. Easy to see where you’re going. The woods end and you come out of the trail onto open tundra. We drove another 30 minutes or so to the area where Jared shot the moose. It starts to snow. We spend some time using headlights and flashlights till we find the culvert where the rest of the moose was. We pull up next to it and get it into my sled, strap it down and get ready to go. We’ve been so focused on this we didn’t really notice that the snow had really picked up.

We start back, following our tracks because now it’s really dark but snowing like a son of a bitch. Practically white out as we drive. The wind has also really picked up. We are going slower because I’ve got a sled full of moose and we are following tracks back. And as we go back, the tracks start disappearing. For longer and longer periods of time.

That was the most scared I’ve ever been. I had gear to take for being out overnight but I hadn’t brought it, nor had Jared. We were just going to go grab this moose. I realized that if I can’t follow the tracks back, I won’t know where the path is in the trees. Once in the trees, the path is easy to follow but the tundra is wide open and there are no reference points in the whiteout swirling snow. I realized even if I got to the trees, if I couldn’t see the path, I wouldn’t know whether to go right or left. It’s maybe 8:30 and daylight is about 10:30. Assuming the snow quits, that’s 14+ hours before they even start a rescue. We are probably 10-15 miles north of town. I didn’t have fire starting gear, blankets, sleeping bag, tarp or food. And my snow machine tracks are disappearing. I was seriously thinking of what we were going to do if we had to spend the night out there.

We made it to the trees and found the path back. We got to Jared’s house and walked in. Both of us stood there for a second and one of us, I can’t remember who, said, “We were so stupid.” I figure another 30 minutes and those tracks would have been gone, leading to a night in below zero blizzard conditions. I never went out again without gear for a possible overnight stay. I took the country very seriously.

I’ve had other scary moments: saw a friend going across the tundra on a snow machine. He rode over a creek that was thawing underneath. Snow cracked and he went into the creek. We got him out but it took a few hours to dig his snow machine out.

Had ice crack under me and back 2tires of 4 wheeler went in the lake. Had to be real careful crawling off the 4 wheeler and not break more ice. Fortunately was with other people and we weren’t far off the shore. Going down river with a buddy in his boat. He hit a huge rock in the shallow river. We didn’t think anything of it until we got onto the lake to come bike and realized the boat was rapidly filling with water.

Had a canoe flip over behind my house in late December. We lived right where Lake Aleknagik went into the Wood River and the water got shallow and narrow so even in winter, the current kept a spot of open water. 2 people died that night. One drowned and they never found his body. Another clung onto the canoe till it came to shore a few hundred yards away. He started crawling toward the street light by our house but he was wet and it was about -15 below. They found him frozen the next day. Another friend and I had to go rescue the third guy. He’d swum to the edge of the ice. He didn’t take off his gloves so when he tried to climb out, the wet gloves froze instantly to the ice. We figure that kept him from going under the ice and drowning. We spent several hours trying to get him warm once we got him into the house. That was exciting.

All in all, if you get out of your house, particularly if you get off the road system, Alaska will give you all kinds of scary/exciting experiences. It’s gorgeous country. You’ll see things you won’t see anywhere else. But treat the land, the conditions and the animals with respect because this land shows no mercy. It will kill you if you don’t treat it with respect.

*even though a late August, it was raining so it was dark-ish, dark enough we had flashlights.

10-06-2018, 01:24 PM	#25
frozenchief Cynical Misanthrope frozenchief's Avatar Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Alaska	I have a few. Lived in Alaska for almost 20 years. Doing a float trip down the Goodnews River and a couple of buddies. Camping on an island one night and we hear something walking in the water. We get out of the tent and it’s a big brown bear about 15 feet away. We were shining flashlights on it* and it was wondering what we were doing. After several tense moments, I fired my pistol in the air and it ran away. Another time, I was to start a trial on 9/11/01. There had been a bear coming through our yard for a few days. I got home about 9:30 that night because I’d been prepping for trial. And the bear was in the yard. We lived on a lake and there was a small ridge that went down to the lake. There were stairs down to the “beach” where we had a dock and kept our boat. The boat was an old beater Lund that leaked so I kept it on the shore. Made sure it wouldn’t sink. Anyway, the bear sees the headlights of the car and heads down to the beach. I get out of my car and I can hear him down by the boat, probably because I’d caught fish that weekend and the smell was in the boat. My girls were young (5 and 3) and I didn’t want the bear hanging around anymore so I grabbed a rifle and a flashlight and headed down the stairs holding the flashlight and the front stock in my left hand, right hand holding business end of the rifle. That was when I was the most ... amped up. I’m sweeping that flashlight around and see the bear. In my boat. I get to the bottom of the stairs and that bear is quite close, looking at me and grunting. I yelled at the bear and it’s just looking at me. So I fired my rifle at the bear and it ran away. I’ve had other encounters with bears at the dump or while fishing or hiking. Couple of weeks ago was fishing and we saw about a dozen bears during the trip but they were pretty chill. Those were the two scariest ones. Otherwise, living in SW Alaska, you have lots of bear stories. This is going to be a lengthy post. Adding more bear stories would just make it much longer. I have encountered tons of moose. Moose are a problem if: 1) it’s a cow with a young calf, usually Late April and May, so don’t get close, or 2) a rutting bull. They are unpredictable but that’s usually late September and October. Otherwise, moose are generally pretty chill. Had a friend pet one that was bedded down in thr snow while we were riding snow machines. Scariest time of my life, though, had nothing to do with bears or moose. Well, moose were involved indirectly. A friend of mine was a teacher in our town (Aleknagik, just north of Dillingham where I worked). He shot a moose in the December season but he couldn’t get it all packed the day he shot it. Temperature was cold so spoilage wasn’t an issue. Bears would be hibernating. There was a Christmas program at school the day after he shot the moose and my daughter was in it so he asked if I could bring my snow machine sled (his sled was smaller) and we could get the rest of the moose. I said sure. So after the event, we put on our cold weather gear and go for this moose. It’s dark. We have headlights though, and we know the way, but we don’t have a GPS. Temperature is in the single digits and dropping but we’ve got plenty of layers. Besides, it’s a quick trip up, grab the moose and come back. The first part of the trail is through woods. Easy to see where you’re going. The woods end and you come out of the trail onto open tundra. We drove another 30 minutes or so to the area where Jared shot the moose. It starts to snow. We spend some time using headlights and flashlights till we find the culvert where the rest of the moose was. We pull up next to it and get it into my sled, strap it down and get ready to go. We’ve been so focused on this we didn’t really notice that the snow had really picked up. We start back, following our tracks because now it’s really dark but snowing like a son of a bitch. Practically white out as we drive. The wind has also really picked up. We are going slower because I’ve got a sled full of moose and we are following tracks back. And as we go back, the tracks start disappearing. For longer and longer periods of time. That was the most scared I’ve ever been. I had gear to take for being out overnight but I hadn’t brought it, nor had Jared. We were just going to go grab this moose. I realized that if I can’t follow the tracks back, I won’t know where the path is in the trees. Once in the trees, the path is easy to follow but the tundra is wide open and there are no reference points in the whiteout swirling snow. I realized even if I got to the trees, if I couldn’t see the path, I wouldn’t know whether to go right or left. It’s maybe 8:30 and daylight is about 10:30. Assuming the snow quits, that’s 14+ hours before they even start a rescue. We are probably 10-15 miles north of town. I didn’t have fire starting gear, blankets, sleeping bag, tarp or food. And my snow machine tracks are disappearing. I was seriously thinking of what we were going to do if we had to spend the night out there. We made it to the trees and found the path back. We got to Jared’s house and walked in. Both of us stood there for a second and one of us, I can’t remember who, said, “We were so stupid.” I figure another 30 minutes and those tracks would have been gone, leading to a night in below zero blizzard conditions. I never went out again without gear for a possible overnight stay. I took the country very seriously. I’ve had other scary moments: saw a friend going across the tundra on a snow machine. He rode over a creek that was thawing underneath. Snow cracked and he went into the creek. We got him out but it took a few hours to dig his snow machine out. Had ice crack under me and back 2tires of 4 wheeler went in the lake. Had to be real careful crawling off the 4 wheeler and not break more ice. Fortunately was with other people and we weren’t far off the shore. Going down river with a buddy in his boat. He hit a huge rock in the shallow river. We didn’t think anything of it until we got onto the lake to come bike and realized the boat was rapidly filling with water. Had a canoe flip over behind my house in late December. We lived right where Lake Aleknagik went into the Wood River and the water got shallow and narrow so even in winter, the current kept a spot of open water. 2 people died that night. One drowned and they never found his body. Another clung onto the canoe till it came to shore a few hundred yards away. He started crawling toward the street light by our house but he was wet and it was about -15 below. They found him frozen the next day. Another friend and I had to go rescue the third guy. He’d swum to the edge of the ice. He didn’t take off his gloves so when he tried to climb out, the wet gloves froze instantly to the ice. We figure that kept him from going under the ice and drowning. We spent several hours trying to get him warm once we got him into the house. That was exciting. All in all, if you get out of your house, particularly if you get off the road system, Alaska will give you all kinds of scary/exciting experiences. It’s gorgeous country. You’ll see things you won’t see anywhere else. But treat the land, the conditions and the animals with respect because this land shows no mercy. It will kill you if you don’t treat it with respect. *even though a late August, it was raining so it was dark-ish, dark enough we had flashlights.
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