I've got a story that stood the hair up on the back of my neck several times.....August 1983 a friend of mine in the construction trades offered me a 6 week job in Alaska to frame a house with him out in the bush. I had to be in Anchorage in two weeks to get the job. My girl friend/roommate at the time, said she was game to go along for the ride. I gutted the old work van i was using at the time and built a little mini camper inside with a counter for our cook stove and a bed i could store my tools underneath. We stuck two nice captains chairs in the front, loaded up the Springer spaniel named Boozette, and off we went. A 69 Ford 1/2 ton van, with a 3 on the tree and a 302 in it....It was a runner!
We dubbed it out "Al-Can Buster"
Well back in those days the Al-Can highway was considerably rougher than it is today. We ran north until we got to White Horse in the Yukon territory on pavement pretty much. After that the roads were still paved for a while but it was some rough going....Pretty soon the pavement gave way to gravel completely as we headed further west. the whole area became seriously remote. We would drive for hours without seeing another car and when we did they were flying by you doing 70 mph and spray you with gravel. We lost 3 head lights, and the windshield was trashed by the time we arrived in Anchorage. We took 5 days to make that trip so we could savor the wilderness during the daylight hours. everyday the sun started setting we'd find a place to get off the road always and set up a little camp. As we got deep into the northern territories we saw more and more wild life, and less and less people. One night we had cooked up some bacon and eggs for dinner.....Cooking bacon in the wilderness which just happens to be filled with very large grizzly bears is not a good thing to do. Now i wasn't totally ignorant in those days, but looking back now makes me realize just what we had done. I poured the bacon grease on the fire and we wiped out the pan and stuck it back in the van. After cleaning up good and leaving no traces of food around, we sacked up the garbage & put that in back with the tools. Kathy called the dog and we crawled inside ourselves to bed down.....
Long about mid night....Kat and i were awoken by the growl of the dog.....This dog never growled either. I'm scratching my head and trying to get the dog to mellow out at the same time when we felt the van rock back and forth the first time. The dog went absolutely nuts then and was up in the front in an instant barking up a storm. Kathy say to me ..."Kirk....That sounds like a bear out there." I came back with something like "Really? ....ya think?" If i was so shook up myself at the time i would of laughed at that remark, but when i heard the sound of the claws scratching the top of the van, my blood ran cold. This van is 7 feet tall guys.....That's a BIG bear out there....All i had with me was a single shot 12 gage loaded with double aught buck shot.....When i grabbed up the shot gun, Kat grabbed me and said, "You aren't going out there are you?" I said "Hell no! I'm not going out there!!! But if he breaks that side window i'm going to force feed him some buck shot!" We are both freaked out completely now... he's trying like the devil to get inside the van rocking it back and forth and scratching at the doors and windows. I figured he was after our frying pan or the garbage. After about 5 minutes of this crap...(Which seemed much longer...) I'd had enough.... eased forward and reached for the window knob and Kat grabs me a pleads with me not to go out there again.....I had no intention of stepping outside with a bear....i cracked the front window on the opposite side where that bear was at the time about an inch, stuck the barrel out the window, and touched it off.....I never moved so fast in my life! i had that window shut and another round in the chamber so fast it was a blur.....then Kathy and i just sat there shaking and waiting for our ears to quit ringing.....Did i mention praying? There was a bunch of that going on too i'm sure.....after ten minutes, there was still no movement or sounds at all. the spring spaniel was at the bottom of our sleeping bags shaking like a leave now....No fear of a huge bear at all, but a gun goes off and she was a basket case....Yep! You guessed it...It was Kathy's dog at the time, and definately not a hunter......
The next morning, well after daylight, we carefully checked out the area from all windows before getting out of the van again. Kathy had a nature call, and i wanted to assess damages and look at the tracks this thing made....there were a few scratches on the van that didn't worry me none. But the size of those tracks put the fear of God into me!....I'd never seen a bear track that big in my life, and i had a few years of hunting under my belt back then too...the pads were 7 inches across & the claws themselves were a good 2 inches long or more. I kid you not…. it was crazy! Needless to say we got moving pretty fast that morning.....We passed on the idea of cooking breakfast for some reason......
We had several more bear encounters in the Year we stayed in Alaska, but none as scary as that first one in the wilds of the mountains in the Yukon....I could write a book on our adventures up there......OH......By the way....The job I was going up after fell through…..But it was too beautiful to leave….i found another…..My girl friend / room mate at the time and i were married in a little log cabin church in Anchorage a year later.....We took our 2 week honey moon trip back down the Al-Can highway again heading for the “Lower 48”. This time, with a canoe on top.....We caught our dinner every night and canoed trough some wilderness lakes and streams you just couldn't believe unless you've seen them with your own two eyes.....That was definitely the last frontier up there, and I believe it still is....
We celebrate our 23rd anniversary this next weekend……
Kirk
Topic: Strange or Unexplained (Read 12437 times)
