guiding alaska

Hair's Breadth Bear

Hair's Breadth Bear

Since it is brown bear season I thought I would add another story about hunting the big guys.

In 1984 I had the good fortune of meeting and guiding Kurt Jaeger from the small country of Liechtenstein.  I really enjoyed my time with him.  We had a great hunt and he harvested a beautiful 37 1/2" Dall ram.  He booked to come back on a brown bear hunt in our Cold Bay area for the spring of 1986.  He harvested a massive 10'+ brown bear and later wrote a story that was published in a German Hunting Magazine and was picked up and published in the SCI Magazine.  Now it is on line under Guns and Hunting and I have attached that link for your enjoyment.  At that time, Kurt was the only hunter in Liechtenstein who had ever harvested a sheep and brown bear. 

Before he printed the story he gave me a call and told me I would not like it because he added a few extras to make it exciting.  He did this because he was told by the editor that they didn't want another "hunter kills a brown bear story" but something more exciting.  We all know that everyone sees things a little differently anyway.  He is a good story teller and a better writer than I am so I think most of you will enjoy it.  He wrote that I said, "He is a lucky _____."  That is something I would have never said then or now!  With that I hope you enjoy.  Read the story

Cub in the Lake

Cub in the Lake

It was fall of 1994 at our Western Alaska camp. The day started out as one of those beautiful September days. I had been checking spike camps that morning with the Super Cub.  One of the camps had a moose down so I needed to pick up a couple of packers and some supplies.  I landed at my strip, taxied the plane into the tie down location, got out and faced into the wind.  Most of the morning the wind had been blowing about 20 mph and the weather report never indicated anything about strong winds.  It takes me about 10 minutes to tie the plane down and 5 minutes to untie it. Since, I was only going to be at the camp, which was on the other side of the lake for about 30 minutes, I decided to save time and not tie the plane down.  I always leave the plane untied when I land at spike camps so there was no difference.