Moose Hunting in Alaska, 1972 Day 6, Part 14

Dan stood by Doug’s cycle talking to him. They were fifty feet from the stream. Doug twisted the throttle handle and surged forward. He bounded into the stream, but was seated, and not in full control when he reached the near side. The front wheel plowed into the bank, and then shot straight up, hanging in the air for a moment. The rear wheel skidded out from under, and the cycle went into the stream. The engine screamed and the spinning tire pin-wheeled a spray of water across the surface. Doug’s leg was trapped under the cycle and he flailed the water for the few seconds it took me to get to him and lift the vehicle off.

“Why didn’t you wait for me to help”, I asked?

“That damn Dan bet me I couldn’t make it alone”, Doug responded between clinched teeth.

“He won that one. You’re carrying too much weight, and its all on the back tire. You didn’t have much chance.”

Dan and Ed came trudging through the stream - wearing Cheshire grins.

“Didn’t make it, did you“, Dan goaded as he climbed the bank and headed on down the trail.

We got back to the trucks at eight that evening, all feeling relieved and a bit complacent at having gotten everything back. We elected Dan to cook the final meal. He won in a landslide victory garnering seventy-five percent of the votes. Being modest, he had refused to vote for himself, casting his ballot for Doug, the runner-up. He fried backstrap, combined it with several cans of chili, and declared he had created an original dish. “Hey, this is pretty good”, he said, half in surprise. “I think I’ll fix this for the family when I get home.”

“Don’t get carried away, they may get tired of it after four or five days”, Ed predicted.

“I can’t believe we’re done. All we got to do is drive home tomorrow.”

“Its been a good hunt - just six days. I still say we‘re crazy as hell though.”

“Yeah!”

”Lets do something else next year.”

“Yeah!”

“Okay!”

“We could take a float trip - pick up a moose close to shore.”

“Sure sorry we didn’t get to fish that lake though. I bet there are some nice trout in it.”

“We just didn’t have time.”.

“You know, if we came in a couple days earlier next year, we could fish and loaf around a little. You know, work on the cabin,, scout for moose, fish.”

That would be nice, a leisure day or two just to dink around.”

“Okay, lets do it.”

“Sounds good”.

“Sure.”

“Yeah.”

Post script: None of us ever made it back.