I really appreciate the kind words from everybody. I sometimes wonder how I ever got to this point.
It seems appropriate looking back in my life. I roamed the Arizona desert as a kid and most of my memories have me exploring alone. As a child I fell into a fast and deep AZ canal but managed to grab some brush and save myself from certain drowning. I hunted with my dad but was so determined to hunt and fish that I did a lot of it alone. I would kill a limit of squirrels and clean them with nobody to notice. I would fish by myself all day, just stopping for lunch. I have spent many days fishing far out on big ice (Great Lakes) with nothing but wind and walleyes for company. I have killed enough deer to...not important...but nobody has ever seen me shoot even one. I remember hiking to a new stand deep in the woods and hunting all afternoon during the rut. The full moon came up at dusk and I couldn't leave. I felt perfectly at home back there where it was just me and the natural world. I sat in the stand until midnight enjoying the cold, watching the moon shadows of rutting deer run beneath me, and knowing I had to be there alone to see it.
But don't misunderstand me: nothing is as valuable as a good hunting partner to me. I enjoy hunting shoulder-to-shoulder sometimes. I would probably have a partner on this hunt, but my pilot-friend actually asked me to hunt it solo the first time and I agreed quickly. Maybe it was just meant to be that way. The access is tight and it hasn't been hunted. This is as much about exploring the hunting in there as anything. It could be a bust after all. That doesn't worry me in the least, as I'm easily capable of going home with just memories and stories. It all starts tomorrow.
Topic: Into The Unknown: Solo Alaska! (Read 6577 times)
