Plenty of guys have what it takes to do a diy trip, and just never take the leap. All I did was take it. But...you need to know yourself well and understand your capabilities. It's important to know some bushcraft and have good survival skills. An obvious concern is how you'll react to being completely and utterly alone in the wilderness with nobody to help you or talk to. When everything goes great it's a cakewalk. When things spiral out of control as they did for me, you can be challenged in ways you never imagined. If my shelter had blown down in the first couple days of the storm I would have been struggling to survive. Wet gear...makeshift shelter...and toughing it out for days. Nobody could fly in that weather except for certain brief periods. It goes without saying you can take average gear and do it, but average gear would have been a disaster on my trip.
I will be honest here: There were moments...several of them...where I had to fight back some despair. When you're 100 miles from any road and the wind is savaging your tent for the third straight night, you're being tested. Five consecutive days of it will find your weaknesses if you have them. It helps to be either dumb or tough...I haven't fully decided on which is better.
I do recall (easily) that my desire to be hunting was strong, but it faded to an afterthought by around day 5. My focus was on self and security by then until the storm abated. As soon as the weather settled I was ready to hit it, but the opportunity was gone. That's Alaska and that's hunting. The unknown is part of what drives some of us onward.
Again...thanks for reading.
Topic: Between Heaven & Hell: Alaska 2015 (Read 3452 times)
