Moose Hunting in Alaska, 1972 Day 3, Part 6

Once in the cabin Dan and I shed our wet clothes and lounged on built-in bunk beds while Doug stoked the fire, and Ed acted as camp cook. The small place, no bigger than fifteen feet square, was filled with our equipment - backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, rifles, etc., much of it, along with wet coats and clothes, was hanging on nails driven into the log walls.

“I’m glad we got this cabin“, I said. “I kept imaging that we’d get here, and find an army of hunters in and around it. We‘d have to stay in tents, and that wouldn’t be near as comfortable - wet and damp, no way to dry anything, no room to move around, no place to store stuff. - gives me chills just thinking about it.”

“I wonder what’s the story on this old place? How long do you think its been here?”

“Hard to tell, but the back wall is going to collapse before too many more years. I’ll bet there’s fifteen, maybe twenty feet of snow up here in the winter. The weight on this flat roof is probably what’s causing the building to cave in. And that gap between the roof and walls makes it nearly impossible to heat during cold weather.”

“Gosh, that backstrap smells good”, Doug interrupted. “Give me a chunk; I’m so hungry I could eat the ass-end of a skunk.”

“There’s a whole plate full”, Ed shot back. “Backstrap not skunk”

“Who’s got a fork?”

“We have only one and I’m cooking with it. Use your knife.”

“What the hell? You mean no one thought to bring silverware?”

“That’s right, one fork and two lousy spoons”.

“We seemed to have brought everything but the kitchen sink and silverware. We’ll probably starve to death amidst this abundance. Damn, the whole trip’s ruined.”

I was sitting on the edge of the bunk greedily gorging moose, and noticed that Dan had crawled into his sleeping bag and was snuggled down out-of-sight.

“I think we have lost Dan.”

“You guys can talk all night“, he said. “I’m going to sleep, and if a bear drops in to investigate the savory odors, then you guys will have to do the negotiating.”

“See you tomorrow”, three sang in unison.

“Think we can get the moose back here tomorrow, Joe?”

“With the four of us - easily, but it will take all day.”

"Its after midnight, we'd better turn in too."
GO TO: Day 4, Part 7