Posts filed under Alaska

That Cabin in the Woods

Flashback Friday

It has now been more than a year since I left Alaska and that cabin in the woods. Wisconsin has grown on me but it ain't Alaska. This will be my second fall away from that home. A second fall away from that boreal forest of mine, with blueberries, cloudberries, lingonberries, fireweed, birch and black spruce. There is nothing like a boreal forest in fall colors. It strikes me quite often how much I miss that place, too much for my own good. There is no benefit to constantly think about the past and miss things, we will probably live a pretty miserable life if we do. But then again, we might anyway if we can't live where our hearts do. There is nothing like fall in the boreal forest!

To the Lover of Wilderness, Alaska is one of the most Wonderful Countries in the World
- John Muir

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Cabin in the Woods posts:

Dec 22, 2017

Winter Travels and the White Mountains part. 3

Dec 22, 2017

Oct 14, 2016

365 days ago - In Alaska

Oct 14, 2016

Sep 7, 2016

Once Alaska is in your blood, you'll never shake it

Sep 7, 2016

Apr 27, 2016

Signs of Spring, Green-Up in Alaska

Apr 27, 2016

Apr 25, 2016

Lazy afternoons at the Cabin

Apr 25, 2016

Mar 27, 2016

Winter travels and the White Mountains part 1

Mar 27, 2016

Apr 17, 2015

The Past and the Present

Apr 17, 2015

Apr 12, 2015

And along came.....winter? Och så kom vintern?

Apr 12, 2015

Mar 15, 2014

A Cabin In The Woods

Mar 15, 2014

Dec 2, 2013

Aurora again

Dec 2, 2013

Posted on September 8, 2017 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Alaska, Flashback Friday, The great wide open, Cabin Life and tagged Alaska Cabin Life_ Dry Cabin 2017 Snow Fall Boreal Forest Forest Autumn Fairbanks Life in Alaska.

Jinxing it?

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Wednesday Thoughts

Bears

As you probably have read earlier I am obsessed with bear and moose safety. With all the wild animals that walk around the watershed I've taken many classes on bear safety and how to act in order to prevent a bear encounter. A few weeks ago there were two bear attacks on two separate days at two different locations in Alaska, both with a deadly outcome. Both including a black bear. It made me think about the fact that I have no clue what to do if worse comes to worse and you are attacked (read the bear is actually eating on you and it is a predatory bear). We do have the bear spray, but if for some reason I would not be able to deploy the bear spray and the bear actually got to me? Or you ran in to one of those predatory bears that is in it for a meal, what do you do? I know they say fight for your life, but how can you fight for your life if you have nothing to fight with but your bare hands, arms and legs? I have heard other stories about people being attacked in their tent, well I know this is extremely rare, but I started storing a knife in the tent for a while, and then I forgot about it. A knife that would allow you to cut the tent open if you needed to. I used to wear a knife in the field to, but then I forgot about that too, it was usually in my backpack if I did bring it.

Signs of bears in the field

Fieldwork

W has been in the field too, countless times, many times alone. I think W has seen a bear from afar in the past while doing fieldwork, and I saw the back of a black bear once running away from me when I was on the ATV in the field once. Another time something was luring behind a tree as a friend and I came walking quietly after a long day in the field, we spooked it, it was huffing behind a large tree before it took a large leap to the side and ran up the hill. Still no clue if this was a bear or a moose. Lesson learned, be loud, and then be even louder. It's easy to forget about this after a long day working hard in the field, or when you are working with your head down in the stream it's easy to not make enough noise, plus you will most likely draw a curious bears attention to you, because many of them are just curious. With W's field season coming up and what had happened in Alaska I wanted him to buy a knife, a knife to have as a last resort, if for some reason there was no other way but to fight for your life. We talked about bear safety too, repeating what we already knew, again. I know W thought I was being ridiculous, but with what had just happened I felt first off very saddened for the two peoples families, but also very scared and wanted to be sure there was a way to fight for your life. I've had people laugh and make fun of me for my intense worry about bears in the field in the past too, but at least I want to be up to date with the bear safety for my own safety.

Fieldwork in Alaska

Jinxing it?

W bought a knife, a large hunting knife, I mean not too large, but enough to be able to potentially make an impact. At least something to have in the tent if you would need to get out fast, or to have on your belt in the field. After a few hours of the first day in the field for W he texted me and said he had to pull his bear spray. Which is insane because that has never happened before, he has never had an encounter like that before. This time he wasn't even alone. But the bear was a curious black bear, those are the worst. A young curious black bear who would not move away even though they made sound and made themselves larger. Eventually he moved away enough for them to feel safe and retract too. Did I jinx his field season? A couple of days later they were going to cross a stream to another field site and W decided that they should walk downstream a bit, and then try to cross. Well luckily they did because they manage to spot two grizzlies across the stream about 50m away from them, something they would have popped up right in front of had they crossed earlier. Yeah I really jinxed it didn't I?

Last time I camped in Yellowstone National Park

Fingers crossed that those were the only bears for this field season, as I am sitting on a plane on Friday to Jackson WY to spend 10 days in the field in Yellowstone, and some of those camping!

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Those Summer Nights in Alaska

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21.76 Degrees North of Here

The Land of the Midnight Sun

When I lived in Fairbanks, or Squarebanks as I used to refer to it sometimes, the winters were long, dark and cold. But the darkness and the cold was all forgotten come spring, and when summer arrived with the endless summer nights we never thought about winter again. I used to chase the sunsets and sunrises, but that became harder in the summertime of course. The sky has always amazed me, how it can change so quickly, and how incredible colorful it can be, that along with the backdrop of mountains is so powerful. I never want to live in a world without that feeling, that feeling I get when I stare into the wilderness in awe and think to myself how extremely lucky I am that I get to experience this, right here and right now. Can you imagine that there are people out there who do not appreciate these wild places?