Alaska Journal

[GJM]

My wife took this picture out in the desert yesterday.



And, this Mohave rattler showed up right in front of our house. You can tell it is a Mohave by the wide white bands on the tail. Too close for a Vizsla.

[GJM]

Spring in the desert is awesome.

[GJM]

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/wild...24e8-246088482

Brown bears are up!

[GJM]

Good weather and epic fun today. Morning started early, flying ridges.



After three hours of fixed wing flying, we hopped in the helicopter and landed at the base of a ridge for some hill climbing.





There is a weather station part way up.



Many bears in the area.



A tired Vizsla is a happy Vizsla.



Got chilly up high.



Almost back down to the helicopter, our ride home.

[Dagga Boy]

Anything that shits that big needs big shit to kill it.

[Malamute]

Anything that shits that big needs big shit to kill it.

Found another pile of that in front of my house not long ago.

[JHC]

That pic of you in profile looks pretty epic. Should be on your FB profile or cover photo.

[GJM]

Out at our remote cabin, and the weather has generally been crappy the last few days. 40’s overnight and warming to the 50’s during the day. Yesterday, we popped over to a nearby ridge, and did a hike that follows a historical brown bear trail.



Our remote cabin neighbors figured out that they can get Amazon Prime free shipping to their cabin, by specifying a nearby village for general delivery, and getting packages dropped when the mail comes over once or twice a week. They are hitting it pretty hard!



This morning, we headed out west, under a low overcast layer, and landed for a hill climb.



Part way up the mountain, we found a recent mining claim marker.



The whole hike, we had heads on a swivel, scanning for brown bears, wolverines and caribou. On the way back down, we ran into these two young caribou bulls. I raised my hands, trying to look like another caribou, in an effort to have them come closer.



My wife took this video of the encounter.



Between the wind and 40’s temps we kept layered up the while hike.



We did some exploring on the way back to our cabin, and spotted these two nice caribou racks on a hill top.

[GJM]

How awesome it was to open the gun safe in AK, and see a 14 inch M4 Benelli, two 14 inch Benelli M2’s and a regular old 1301, all with micros. Oh, and about a dozen HK hammer pistols, all set up for Underwood ammo withnthe Xtreme penetrator bullet.

Around here, it is a 43X with JHP and Underwood for in town, and an HK45C and Super ammo outside of town. This is my 43X and my wife’s HK.





Flying weather has been good. This is a neat gravel bar landing spot on a river that drains a glacier. Bugs wee bad, as you can see on the video.







Last night, we were hiking nearby, and the fireweed is in full bloom now, although everything has grown up so much, you need to be alert for creatures.



Yesterday afternoon, I had to make seven flights tracking the rotor system to minimize vibration, but this afternoon we got out to go hiking. One of our favorite places had too much low cloud action from approaching weather to get in.





We went to plan B, about 20 miles north and landed on a ridge. We saw wolf sign every few yards, but no brown bear sign there, which was unusual. Our dog was worn out after running nearly two hours on the tundra.



Made it back to town just before the rain started. Looks like some unsettled weather the next few days.

[GJM]

For some reason, it scrambled the order of the photos, and I am clueless how to fix them — sorry.