A Search for Adventure Leads to Alaska by Wolf Hebel

Author:Wolf Hebel
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781594333330
Publisher: Publication Consultants

Frank and his dog

During weather like that, there wasn’t much else to do but keep the fire going and find something to read or keep otherwise occupied. No matter how occupied I might have been, I had to manage several trips to the ice-cold outhouse. Lucky for me, by the evening, I felt good enough again to pay Frank another visit. Naturally, the cold weather and the lack of game became the topic for that night and Frank told me another story about his younger years.

“In the earlier years, even more than now, a man’s survival depended upon his success as a hunter, and when years like this one came around, things started to get pretty tough. I was trapping at the Nowitna River during one of those years and all I had caught in my traps was an otter. After skinning the animal, I hung the carcass outside to cool off because I was thinking about eating that otter, since all I had left to eat was dried fish and I was hungry for meat. Otter meat is normally not good for human consumption, but my mother used to have a recipe that would make even otter meat edible. I tried all night long to remember that recipe. By morning, I still wasn’t sure about it. But intending to cook the carcass anyway, I stepped outside to get it. To my surprise, the carcass was gone. According to the tracks in the snow, a wolverine had stolen the otter and probably ate it without worrying about my mother’s recipe. In a way, I was glad about it, because I didn’t have to cook it anymore and could spare myself some disappointment. I ate my dried fish instead and was contented.”

Two days later, the temperature had risen to twenty below and Neal and I were amazed how warm that felt after the cold snap. There was another thing I had learned during that cold snap: it was that splitting wood with a double bladed axe at sixty-five below has its hazards. While the wood splits much easier when it is cold, one should preferably use a slitting mall. If one has to use a double bladed ax, it should be kept inside the cabin so it will stay warm, because if the steel of an axe gets that cold, it also gets as brittle as glass. At the first imperfect hit, one half of the blade of my double bladed ax whistling past my head certainly scared the heck out of me.

But now that it was warmer again, it was time for Neal to replenish our wood supply and time for me to get back on my trapping trails. Even with my trail being packed by now, it was necessary to pack down the fresh snow as well, so I used my snowshoes. I had learned that because of one of Frank’s pointers again, in which he indicated that animals like to follow nice, clean, and straight trails. It made

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