Category Archives: Natural history

Fairy Wonderpants

We’ve had some good snow lately, and it’s welcome. As it gets colder and darker, a good blanket of snow lightens things up considerably. But over the past couple of days we’ve had that magical combination of light snow and no air movement that causes snow to pile up on everything and look fantastic.
Continue reading

Late-season Silvers

I’d heard about some superb late-season salmon fishing on the Delta Clearwater River years ago, and finally the time came to try it out.
Continue reading

The Many Values of Nothing

Ahhh, fall. The gradual change in the air, the turning of the leaves, and the haunting calls of Sandhill Cranes as they gather to migrate south again. And to once again stalk the wily moose. Fall seems so brief up here that when September arrives you’re just itching to get out and enjoy nature and see if you can bring a tasty friend home for dinner.

During last year’s caribou hunt, we’d talked about trying a float trip down the Wood River this year for moose. And so early one morning Kevin May, Ken Severin, and I met up at Wright Air Service with all of our gear to fly out and get dropped off on the Wood River as it flows north out of the Alaska Range. Kevin flew out on the first flight with a bunch of our gear, and Ken and I joined him about two hours later on an airstrip cut out of the forest and running uphill. There was a horse-based hunting guide’s camp there. He’d come in from the south.

Continue reading

These Giants Live Here No More

Some years ago, a road was punched through the woods above us, shrinking both the forest and the number of moose hanging out in our neighborhood.
Continue reading

When the Forest Farts

We’re coming to the end of summer, and the season’s bounty is out there ripe for the harvest.
Continue reading