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Life in Alaska


Nanuq

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Tennyson used the phrase "Nature, red in tooth and claw."

I'm just back from a long walk up the mountain with my dogs. I brought the 12ga. this trip because there's a LOT of bears around.

Going up the mountain I saw two wolves come out of the trees 300 yards away, and angle off across a clearing back into the woods. We kept going, and I stopped to check some bear tracks. I stood up and one of my dogs was halfway to where I'd seen the wolves; the other dog was out of sight.

I shouted and whistled, and heard nothing, then off in the trees I heard her screaming and yelping.

I racked a round and ran off into the woods to find her. I heard a lot of snarling and her screaming but it was moving. So I kept running trying to head off the movement. I whistled a few times and stopped on a trail I crossed to listen. She had gone quiet and I figured it was over for her.

Suddenly I heard noise and whipped around, and it was her running to me. She was exhausted and trembling, but no blood. Off in the trees maybe 80-100 yards away the wolves set up a chorus of yipping, and that deep howl that they do.

I kept the 12ga. level and we hiked out, arriving home 45 min ago. Now she's sleeping beside me on the floor.

I better change her name to Lucky.

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I hope she's ok, sounds like she is. What a story, I can't imagine what would have happened if she hasn't been there with you.. Might have saved you from a good fight yourself! Give her an extra big hug when she gets up.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Wow! I'm terrified simply having read your post let alone experiencing it. Very impressive handling of the situation there. I guess that's partially why all the wolves here in Scotland were wiped out in the late 1600's. Makes the mountain walks a little less treacherous.

Safe hiking my friend and hope your dog is okay.

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Thanks Benjamin, yeah she survived just fine. She sticks a little closer now when we go up the mountain.

I've had a couple bears around recently and she really snarls at them. It's different because bears just tear stuff up, they don't hunt you. She sure tells them to stay away when we go out! Brave girl.

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Not to worry, the other one's already been there and done that... he's smart enough to stick close in the woods so I don't need to even think about what he's doing when the chips are down.  And he's pretty sure he's the one that bagged this big boy.

 

 

post-32-0-58424900-1372781043_thumb.jpg

 

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Yeah and it's the biggest wolf I've ever seen.  I had it on the floor and the fricken dog chewed some of its claws off so I hung it on the wall. 

 

I had to hang it diagonal, it was too long to fit otherwise. 

 

 

familyshot.jpg

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It's a good look  :)

 

With those four acoustic guitars there we could really get some fine music going.....and by the looks of it the wolf won't be doing any howling  ;)

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I wonder how long it will be until some guitar nerd sees those and has a stroke?  There's some extremely rare firewood hanging there.  ;)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Tonight I'm sitting out on my deck with a fine wine and a fine watch reading a fine book. She's been sleeping at my feet, now she's popped her head up looking out into the woods. She's starting to growl a little. I've been looking and looking, and just now I heard it... heavy footsteps, brush moving and twigs cracking. I'm about to have a visitor.

I'll snap a photo if someone fuzzy pops out of the woods. Until then....

post-32-13743873178.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

Yep, that's a little more than one winter's worth.  2.6 cords of good birch for the house and camping.

 

The tough part is going out to the pile to fetch it when it's pitch black, the snow is waist deep, and the wind's blowing hard.  I usually keep 2 day's worth stocked in the garage and let it melt the ice off, then rotate it inside to burn.

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  • 2 weeks later...

You're welcome to join me!  I took the dogs out for their morning ritual and they didn't appreciate it much.  I thought it was funny as heck!

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