Last Frontier Blades
The unforgiving Alaskan bush provides the ultimate carry-worthy test for three, sharp backcountry tools!
“Be careful for what you wish; it surely shall be yours.” These are wise words indeed and provide the backdrop for the trip my sons and I took last summer into the Alaskan bush. The trip was a celebration of my retirement and Zach and Luke were ready to once again join me and head out into the “woods.” We decided to raft the remote Koktuli River in Southwestern Alaska. We looked forward to eight days of comradeship, adventure and seeing spectacular wildlife. When the bush pilot dropped us off on the shore of a tundra lake, his parting words were about the time he was mauled by a bear and how it changed his life. We thanked him for the story, looked at each other with wide eyes, loaded our 12-gauge slug guns and began the portage to the river. That night we slept on the tundra with grizzly sign all around.
It was different being on the treeless tundra. Forget shelter or firecraft. There is a reason the great arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson wrote volumes on the clothing of the Eskimo and Inuit. Warmth and shelter are all about what is on your back or the tent you pack. After we made camp, Zach went off to explore. He dressed warmly, took one of the shotguns, Scott Gossman’s Moose knife, the GPS, a compass and off he went. Several hours later when he returned, we had a conversation about how easy it would be to get lost and how tough it would be to survive on the tundra. What looked like a flat plain turned out to be endless rolling hills with no reference points. Zach said that he quickly lost sight of camp. He was never in danger of being lost but the hike was sobering.
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