Trad Gang

Hi all,

Well for some time now I've been looking in on the website of BackCountry Hunters and Anglers and I like there goals as well as what they put forward in regards to saving the back country for what it's ment for.... hunting and fishing and just enjoying the outdoors.


http://www.backcountryhunters.org/index.php?link=main


Being an Aussie I'm not sure if I'd be able to sign up but the reason I like the idea of BCHA is that soon enough I plan to hunt the very country this organisation is try to keep clean and free for all.

That in my mind is worth the yearly cost of admission.

So ... whos with me and has already signed up, or planning to ?


AK.

AK, I'm a newer member and been trying to do some recruiting in Michigan...

Great organization with a good cause.

He Al I am a member. Good on you for trying to get some more members.

i am co-chair of the AK chapter.
still got growing pains, but we have been getting some attention, and our member base is growing.

I am a former national board member, and current co-chair of the CO chapter: ww.coloradobackcountryhunters.org.  Right now my eyes are blurry from vitamin E ointment for recent minor surgery, so please forgive typos and eccentricities. The last two years of the Traditional Bowhunters Expo (let's hope it returns!) in OR and ID, we had a booth and found traditional bowhunters --no surprise!--to be exceptionally receptive to our message, which is in a nut: keep our public lands backcountry unroaded, unmotorized, unspoiled, wild and challenging -- not only for those who can get there (I still do at 62, on foot, so not too much sympathy for the "If I can't get there on motorized wheels, sitting down, then I've been denied fair access" crowd), but also for the subtle but biologically important "trophy pump" effect of remote backcountry, where bulls and bucks find escape from roadside hunting pressure sufficient to realize their full maturity in antlers, then pass those winning genes along to future generations and, occassionally, even drift near a road where the Easy Chair gang can get a crack at 'em. And so on. We are all-volunteer, thus only as strong as our leaders and members in a given state. But geeze, we've got some dedicated folks and for a young and still-smallish group (we have members in 47 states and two other countries, but not huge numbers yet anywhere), we are bright on the radar screens of not only state but national elected officials. We have a voice and presence and make a difference far beyond our size, because we are the genuine boots-on-the-ground real American muscle-powered hunter-angler thing, and uncharacteristically more in love with the raw hard truths of life than with winning or raising money (rather like, again, trad bowhunters). While all of our best leaders and a growing number of dedicated members give freely of their time and energy and when they have it, money (not all at once necessarily, but it's all necessary and to each his/her own ability to contribute), a few of our folks are absolutely tenacious and utterly unselfish in their support of our causes, like our two AK chapter leaders, both bowhunters, HomerDave (who posted above) and Bushrat, the former, a pure subsistence hunter, trapper and fisherman from interior AK (30 years now!) who goes to the lengths of borrowing money when necessary and relying on likeminded bushpilot friends to get him out of the deep deep bush once or twice a year into Fairbanks to raise some holy hell with the state wildlife commission and the monopolistic big sportmen's group that wants everything easy and profitable as possible. And David Lien, my co-chair here in CO, also chairs the MN chapter and is working hard to get going a MI chapter, in addition to a demanding full-time job and at his own considerable expense. These are the true heroes of the American model of hunting, today and tomorrow, and more abused than celebrated for their efforts. For myself, I have never been a joiner -- except for the Marines (1968-1974) and BHA (life member). Sorry for the rant, Al and other friends, but your arrow of inquiry hit the center of my heart. Keep it wild! Keep it real! Kee it traditional American! Dave2old

Al,

I am a 2 year member and have hosted the MO Wilderness Coalition, at an Outdoor event that I organized, they are working to get 7 new wilderness areas in Missouri. BCHA is a great group of people.

Hey Al and others,

I'm co-chair of the Alaska chapter with Homerdave. BHA is indeed a great group of people trying to do good things for our hunting and angling traditions and heritage, the core message being more of an old-school conservation ethic and philosophy.

As state chapters form, each state faces a sometimes-different, sometimes-same array of issues, and what is great about the individual state chapters is it allows BHA to focus in more of a macro mode on specific places. This allows us to better work to conserve and protect those places in ways that are of a more long-term benefit to habitat, which means more sustainable and long term hunting and fishing opportunities for us all.

For those interested, you can check out the Alaska BHA Chapter here:
http://www.alaskabackcountryhunters.org  

We welcome your support.

I have been a member for a few years.  As soon as I heard of BCA I joined.  Most of us here in Montana are seeing our backcountry dissected by legal and illegal ATV routes.  The motorized recreationists are organized and well financed by the ATV industry.  For those of us that care about leaving some backcountry to our kids and hopefully their kids, it is time to help Backcountry Hunters and Anglers be as strong a collective force as possible.  Memberships and chapters nationwide and in Australia will help us keep and restore those areas important to wildlife and those of us who seek quality and solitude.  Thanks Al for your interest.

Thanks for all the heads up. From what I see things are looking grim on the ATV front... so it looks as though I will be sending my $$ to BCHA to lock away the wild places I've always dreamed of hunting.


AK.

How many states have chapters in this organization?

Mark,

"....(we have members in 47 states and two other countries, but not huge numbers yet anywhere)..."

I too have been a member for a few years now. It's the one organization that believes in and fights for the same things I do. There are a lot of good people writing letters and putting a lot of voluntary time in for the preservation of roadless areas and for stopping motorized abuse of these areas. And as Dave said, state and national elected officials are listening. In the interest of hunters and anglers seeking solitude and silence in the backcountry BCHA is the best group going.
Rick

AL, I am also a member of BHA and I am continually impressed by their frontline efforts in protecting our nation's wild lands. Backcountry Hunters and Anglers combined with Trout Unlimited's Public Land Initiative are representing hunters and anglers in conservation efforts to protect wild, roadless habitat that is almost entirely public land. That alone speaks for me, the blue collar hunter who needs public land. If you love wild places and you want them to be protected for future generations, then BHA is worth being a member of. T

I joined BHA early on and continue to support and tout BHA goals whenever I get the chance. To Dave's " kkep it wild, keep it free" I would add "Keep it quiet, leave it alone". Great group, great message.

As with most I only have so much I can donate to each year. I have considered this group on several occasions. After this past elk season with lazy "hunters" riding their ATV's on closed roads I am in.

Hi from Spain,europe

I am one of the members from another country,always dreaming about future trips to bowhunt "the west"

Sorry for my english

Jorge

I joined the first year that BHA was formed. However, like others I can only afford to be a member of so many organizations. The truth is that I am already a member of several bowhunting and conservation organizations and something had to give. BHA was that "something" even though I certainly support everything the organization stands for.

Not trying to pick a fight here, but what is the organization's stance on fly-ins?  It seems they are against OHVs (I assume that means 4-wheelers and bikes) but would that include bush planes?  I can't see any mention of planes for or against.

This organization seems to promote things I believe in.  Maybe I should join, soon.

Mark -- Being all-volunteer (except for a part-time person who oversees and updates the membership roster monthly), state chapters are essentially the responsibility of members. No minimum number of members is required to form a chapter ... it only takes one or two who want to start working for our goals -- attending meetings, writing letters to editors and elected officials, commenting on forest plans (especially the current travel management revisions, which determine where ATVs will and won't be able to go in the immediate future), etc. Any member wanting to designate a state chapter needs only to contact Mike Beagle, national chair, via the website (www.backcountryhunters.org) for help. While our national group has a board of directors and all the usual formalities, our state chapters do not, thus are fairly independent so long as working withing our national guidelines. Only two chapters currently have websites -- CO and AK -- but others are active to one degree or another, including several western states, MN and MI. And we encourage individual members to study our issues and wade in on local issues as a BHA member. Our quarterly newsletter has just gone glossy -- a thin magazine -- with the goal of someday becoming a fist-rate hunting, fishing and conservation publication in its own right. We generally have a booth at the RMEF national in Reno, and were very well received at the last two TBM Expo West shows. While BHA is not a trad bowhunter's group per se, we are strongly represented in the ranks and esp. among life members, because -- needing and wanting wild, quiet, uncrowded country in order to hunt undisturbed animals -- we really feel the pinch when we lose it. Annual dues are $25, and almost all of it goes into our work. Active state chapters share a percentage of all memberships, and other support from national. Since we  need your support more than your money, we occassionally declare a new member special for $15, such as in the TBM ads (although it got left out this issue by oversight) and at shows. So, I hereby declare such a special for TradGang members who mention this thread. If you join via the website with a credit card, simply note in the comment box "TradGang new member $15 special" or somesuch. While I am very active in the group -- helped conceive the idea, a former national board member, current CO chapter co-chair and life member -- I in no way run the show so no worries about my "radicalism" or "elitism" leading the way. I personally rank a public lands backcountry elk hunt in the West on an adventure level with AK or Africa, and a whole lot cheaper. Sportsmen too are multiple users but in recent years we've had to fight harder and harder to retain our slice of the pie. That's really all BHA is about -- maintaining traditional, quiet-use, muscle-powered backcountry hunting and fishing opportunities on public lands ... not only for ourselves, but for my 6-year-old grandson and yours. What could be more American. Thanks, dave

I'm in, as a Life Member! It a "lean and mean" group that gives the best bang for the buck I know of out there in terms of protecting wild country and wild hunting opportunities.  Check it out . . .

I'm in!  A regular member, I look forward to the near future when I can get in some volunteer time and, perhaps, become a life member.

My most successful elk hunting over fifty years depends on elk that are not disturbed daily....the more settled into their daily habits the easier they are to hunt.  Easy access by ATVs makes former backcountry into "vacant country"as far as elk goes in a short period.  They need large enough security areas they dont have to escape to private land.  

BHA fights hard on exactly those issues.

QuoteOriginally posted by Dave2old:
So, I hereby declare such a special for TradGang members who mention this thread. If you join via the website with a credit card, simply note in the comment box "TradGang new member $15 special" or somesuch.

Well, now you've done it.  You had me embarrassed earlier that I haven't joined a long time ago, and now you've gone and made it impossible to dither any longer.     ;)     (Good on ya!)

Talondale, fly-ins are a method of delivery to a hunting location, much like a car or truck.  ATV's, OTV's, etc., are like fleas on a hound dog..they are all through the woods.   I don't think you would be driving the plane up and down the trails. I'm sure Dave2old can give an answer to that for sure.

Black Bart ... uh, I mean George, has it right. BHA has NO position on fly-ins. It is roads, the reasons they are built (extract, extract, extract), and what they bring that turn backcountry into front country, destroy habitat and kill the traditional hunting experience -- that is, a bit of special effort to get there and rewards to match -- that we all love as the best of America, whether we can ever visit such places or not. Maybe our grandkids can ... if it's still there. Another current post, which I've not read, asks "Do you pay for hunting access?" My reaction is: "Darn right I do -- by busting my buns to keep America's public hunting lands wild and public, as clearly do so many of you brothers (and sisters). And hey, special thanks to Terry for leaving this post here rather than moving it to a far less visible forum. You da guys! dave

Dave, I took your info from the Boise trad fair(couple years ago) to my local senators.  I asked them to get in on the ground floor on this.  They told me the ATV and "jeep" types B_B_Q'd those who tried to get limited access provisions.  I still think we have to work on it holostically.  
I fully understand why the guys back east don't fully understand our concern:  The tire ruts never go away!  They drive those things where no one should drive anything.  You can spot game at miles and the ATV race to get close to game begins at daylight opening day-more for rifle hunters than archers-but still happens.  I have slipped into aa good, high position and watched guys ride all day on an ATV, never getting off.  Considering some people have no self constraints-ssomething needs to be done.
I proposed that only roads on the DeLorme maps of 1996 and before be legal for such travel.  Any trail not on those series of maps are not to be used for vehicular traffic.  I also propose every vehicle require a sticker with large numbers on it-proceeds from the stickers would be used to repair previous damage.  In this world of sticky state and federal budgets-get the money up front.
Semper Fi, and thanks for your continuing efforts.

Ok Dave, I am in. Just joined on the trad membership special as a regular member. Thank you very much.  :)

Thanks for the reminder, I need to re-up.

I'm in.

Anyone know if there is a Pennsylvania Chapter?  Not much if any wilderness left here but I like the concept and mission.

I am now the newest member.

Second to the newest! lol

I've been in for a while, but there is no California chapter.  Anyone want to start one?

DMM - Don't think so, though we have members there. You can join and start one!

Jimikinz  PM sent re: CA Chapter

I'm a member and a huge supporter. The BHA is a great organization and I encourage every outdoorsman to join.

Peter Iacavazzi

Hi all, I've been away out west doing some work and have just came back in to read this thread. Good to see like minded people in Traditional Archery/Bowhunting putting there $$ where there mouth is.

I'll be submitting my membership asap. I've always loved the idea of the American West, so now I can play a small part in looking after it... all the way from Oz.

AK.

I know the president and vice president of the Alaska chapter, great guys who I admire and respect a great deal.

I strongly support the BHA and its mission. Illegal use of ORV's and irresponsible resource exploitation threaten my outdoor activities far more than anti-hunters. Don

Mailing out the application tomorrow.

hey rick... we is "co-chairs" (neither of us wants to be prez   :D  )

Dave, PM Sent

No Pennsylvania chapter, but I'm a Pennsylvania member and watching the Allegheny National Forest get roaded to death...if hunters don't stand up for the wildness of their land, how can the wildness of their hearts survive?

Well I'm there lastest member. Monies well spent.

AK.

I'm in, the latest AK BHA member

This outpouring of TradGang support is very heartening, but hardly surprising. If not here, where? If not us, who? I'll be at K-zoo this year and happy to talk BHA with anyone who's interested ... if you can catch me between shooting every single Shrew bow there have there! dave

I joined when the thread started and have my info allready. Will display my stickers with pride. I also will be contacting the WY chapter to see what I can do.

Okay,  just threw my hat into the ring as well.  Sounds like an organization I need to support.

Been a member a couple years. as said in a earlier post, its harder for the eastern hunters to see the need, but we are over run with atv's in the northern part of our state which is mostly national forrest.  ( most of south is leased private land) But I have been out west some and I can see the desperate need in getting something done. And what they do there hopefully will affect us as well..

Dave2Old, when are you going to be in town for the K-zoo show?  I will be there Friday night shopping and Saturday I will be sitting at the Michigan Traditional Bowhunters booth.  It would be great to hook up and finally meet you.

Ok, how about a partially dissenting view.

I spend a lot of days in real back country, more than most.  I have probably logged 150 solo days in Alaska alone.

I have spoken up against rampant ATV use and other inappropriate jet boats in BOG (Alaska Board of Game) proposals.  Have you all seen those new awefull tunnel hull jet boats and heard where they can go, uggghhhh.  Air boats have ZERO redeming qualities and belong no where.

I also am a supporter of the wood bison restoration project.

But this organization goes in other directions that I cannot support and thus there is no way I would join.  One is what I consider a liberal "hippie" stance on predator control.  Our moose herds are in bad shape in many parts of Alaska and the moose need to regain their base.  

A bowhunting friend is a helo pilot and sees first hand an area's game popultaions.  He has told me about the come back of moose in areas where the state has enacted predator control measures.  You want a decent Alaskan moose hunt someday?  I know I do.  I have been on four back country moose hunts and haven't had a real good quality moose hunt yet.

Overzealous and rampant environmentalism is one of the factors today why our economy is in the dumps.  Don't think YOU are removed as all industries are interconnected.  Face it, for a strong economy we need economic development.  We can't all be NIMBY's and always have resource development be in someone ELSE's backyard.  I hope that those in the anti-mining crowd don't have things like metal hulled boats, use bullets of lead and copper, houses made with aggregate, or fly the friendly sky's on a metal bird.  It's just a bit hypocritical.

We can't hug EVERYTHING to death.  Pick your battles, I don't see that has happened in this organization.

Steve H, I do not agree with you on those issues, but thanks for the dissenting view. I especially appreciate that you were able to make your view known in the "Trad Gang manner": no personal attacks. I'd say you're a good example of what this site means when they say, "Debate is healthy, as one sword sharpens another, but it must be done in an honorable fashion."

I signed up a few weeks back. Looking forward to putting the sticker up on my car when back home and reading the newsletter.

Keep up the effort all at BCHA.


ak.

I have been a member for 3 years now.  At present I am trying to start a chapter here in AZ.  I've got the G & F boys and girls on my side.  They will give us a hand.  As soon as I can get some people to agree on a day and a time we will have an initial meeting.  Anybody in AZ want in?  They took away the $ for ATV enforcement from the G&F so I thought we would try to do some with video.

MAP

Rooselk, you don't consider "liberal 'hippie' stance" a bit, uh, less than what we might call distinguished respectful dissent? In any event, Steve, one or both AK BHA chapter chairs will respond. Both are trad bowhunters. One runs a hunting/fishing charter service out of Homer and eats pretty much only wild meat. The other lives 100 miles from the nearest road or village and has for 30 years, has internet only recently thanks to solar panels on his cabin's moss roof, uses dogs and has never owned a snowmachine, goes hungry if he doesn't catch fish in summer and kill moose each fall. Hard-*ss folks. Hippie liberals? Well, I was once a hippie and wish I still were (oh those lovely days on the hippie-chick-flowered beaches of SoCal after leaving the Marines!). And I always thought "liberal" meant "open minded." Odd word to have become a curse. Peace, love, shoot straight, fresh blood on the ground ... dave

i always think of liberal as the the root word of liberty

In response to Steve H.'s comments, all I can say as co-chair of the Alaska chapter of BHA is "Huh?"

What's this talk of a "liberal hippie stance" on predator control? C'mon...next thing you know we'll be acccused of being "tree hugging greenies" too . Sigh...it's amusing how some come after us hardcore hunters cuz we may feel differently on some issues.

I've been living in remote bush of Alaska going on thirty years, using satellite internet now to log on to this forum, location is more than a hundred miles from nearest village and just below the Arctic Circle, raised a family out here with my wife on moose and caribou, salmon and grayling, beaver and even wolf...so I'd like to think I can speak about Alaska hunting fishing and trapping in ways that folks will respect the overall experience. I'm still here, still doing it, was out on trapline with my dogs just the other day. And by the way, it's currently -41 degrees as I type this (brrr!).

Rather than respond to how AK BHA feels about some of the ongoing predator control programs in Alaska, let me just post a link to an op-ed I wrote about just one of the control programs not far from where I live. I hope you'll take the time to read it as it explains our position fully and why we oppose extremism in wildlife management:
http://alaskabackcountryhunters.org/Wolf%20Control%20Expansion%20Plan%20Shortsighted%20at%20Best.pdf

Ya'll stay warm wherever you are,
Sincerely,
Mark Richards - Co-chair AK BHA

okay... i'll respond to this as i see fit... I am co-chair of the AK chapter along with Mark Richards.
i don't know what is considered a "hippie liberal" stance on predator control, i guess i'd be interested to find out.
I believe it is right and proper to question the motives and manner of predator control, and before predator control is brought into play, we need to separate "need" from  "want".
There is a move up here to  shoot black bears in a unit where the public justification is that the locals need meat,and can't find enough moose... but regulations are being pushed to allow the wanton waste of perfectly edible spring bear by repealing salvage requirements. How does that make hunters look?
I object to this, and I object to the push from a private organization to allow the use of helicopters for this same "hunt".
Right now AK BHA is trying very hard to find a way to get proper funding  for our Dept of Fish and Game, where we are embarrassingly underfunded when it comes to doing basic population studies on moose, sheep, goat, and bears.
Is this "hippie liberal" stuff?
We want harvestable, healthy natural populations of all game and non-game animals, not just high profile critters like moose and sheep, but predators, songbirds, and everything that comes together to make Alaska unique.

I met Dave up at the Trad Expo a few years back and gathered in his info. Read it, like dthe stance and since i was lobbying a bill for our state's airports, spoke to a senator about it.  He like d it a lot, but said he had to balance his efforts in the legislator with things his constitutencies wanted.  he had not heard much from those opposed to recreational riding anywhere or any time.  he had heard from those who sold ATV's and claimed all his other efforts might be underminded by proposing such arestriction at this time.  Now realize 85%  of this state is federally controlled-he said we should try to get the feds on board as we had little impact, but the feds restriciting riding might be the answer-at least in this state.  This guy is not a coward-rather a realist.  Our senators are back this year-we meet only every other year.  i'll try again.  Dave much thanks and praise for your effort.  Probably many here who do not understand the issues as we do in the west.
Last year i hunted on the original pony express route-signs in the desert to show the way over the mountain passes!  It is an authorized road and i drove it for over 30 miles to get to the base of the mountain I hunted.  Not a fence anywhere to be seen.  I am sure many who frequent this site have never driven for 30 miles without seeing fences.  Our problem with ATV's is jsut a bigger issue.if we don't take some action to control access, the mountains will be rutted forever.  Our earth gets rutted easily in the dry months, but all those ruts run water when the snow melts and makes giant ruts that eventually wash down into gullies-which cover over the sparse vegetation wher ethe animals feed.  I do not want to live in a sand lot.

Well the fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the big game thrived in all states prior to man sticking his nose into the act and mercilessly killing big predators out of fear and selfishness.  Now we think we are the only ones that should be allowed under protection of the law.  Good grief.
I grew up in hippie times but missed the liberal hippie boat I suspect.  But maybe I am one now.

Wolves ang Grizzlies are natures way of leveling the playing field.

I've been "in" for a while.
I've got lots I can say, but won't say much right now. I probobly could be labeled to the hippy side for my views, but I have come up with them all by my self and I don't really fit in to a slot any where, and some of my opinions are unwelcome almost anywhere. I am selfish tho, and I do want to be able to hunt and fish and let others do it after I am gone.  
Thanks to places like this and people like you all, it may happen.  :thumbsup:

Update! I forgot to mention that I wasn't just any old hairy hippie back in 1970s Laguna Beach, but a balding, Harley-riding, bowhunting hippie! That's how I got the Queen of the Surfer Chicks to follow me first to MT, then to rural CO, where she quickly became the best elk scout and wild game cook in the West. I recommend the experience to all young men!

Seriously, AK is perhaps our toughest state for BHA goals, due to entrenched cultural and political biases. You gotta be tough to stand against those tough folks, and Mark and Dave fill the bill perfectly. In my latest trip up there a couple of years ago, a friend and I hunted with Mark and his son Keane for 11 days solid and hard ... and didn't even see a cow moose! The action of course picked up the day after we left, but I expect Murphy's Law to follow me everywhere. But the point is -- even though we didn't get a moose or even see one, we saw grizzly tracks and digs, a lone set of wolf tracks following moose tracks (lots of luck to that feller), spent an unexpected night bivouaced 2 miles from the Yukon border, while our sleeping bags and food were safe back at the little trapper's cabin we were using for base camp, 10 miles downriver. We caught grayling and built a big fire and it was one of the best nights, and hunts, of my life. We either crave true wildness and are willing to sacrifice for it, or we haven't taken our traditional hunting lives to their fullest realization. I'll see if I can figure out how to post a pic or two here. --Hippie dave

OK, here's Hippie Mark Richards on his own turf. No, I didn't post the photo wrong -- Mark has just gone permanently sideways. You know how it is with those crazy liberals!

(http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w249/elkheart/DSCN0180.jpg)  :biglaugh:

I'm in too. Thanks for your support Al

Dave2old spoke of a September night we spent up near the Yukon Territory border, along the Arctic Circle, sans our camp. Thought I'd better fill in the crowd here a bit more on that .

One of those deals where you continue on into good moose country, hiking and glassing from various river bluffs, and before you know it you're past that proverbial point of no return where you figure you'll go a bit further and just set up a siwash camp. We had brought lunch and some trailmix with us, but no food other than that and no cooking gear either. (We had fully intended to just go a bit upriver that day and  return to camp .)

A bit farther up the river too was an old abandoned trappers cabin, and I thought we may be able to scavenge some food that was there, and some blankets and such. That cabin is a half mile or so off the river, through a real pretty grove of riverbottom white spruce. Flushed a nice spruce grouse on the walk in, and Dave shot an arrow at it as it was sitting 30 feet up a spruce, barely missed...lost the arrow (naturally!). We reprimanded him of course talking about what good eating that spruce hen would've been. We get to the cabin and it is completely trashed by this monster grizzly boar we'd been seeing tracks of along the river where he had been digging for Indian Potato along the gravel bars and tossing around giant 100lb rocks like they were nothing.

Amongst the broken jars, squirrel-stashed spruce cones and general mayhem we find an unbroken jar of kidney beans. And there is a usable camp coffepot we find that we can boil water in and cook the beans. We also find a roll of aluminum foil, and since we had our fishing rods and grayling were running in the river we figure on a dinner of beans and grayling roasted in tin foil.
Also found some blankets and an old worn moldy sleeping bag.

We head back upriver and somewhere along the way Dave takes an endo or slips while we're trying to lug the boat over shallows into a deep section and fills his waders and beyond. Water temp 40 degrees. Look on his face after coming out of the water: Priceless . All of us have our packs with us, and a spare change of clothes, so Dave changes and then we fish for grayling at a really neat spot where a fast riffle comes down against a bluff and into a deep pool. We pull six grayling out in the course of a half hour and go to set up a camp a half mile further up. After scavenging for driftwood I set up a tripod affair to dry clothes and hang tarp over.

We cooked the beans and roasted the grayling, put some of our lunch salami and cheese inside the gut cavity...one of those meals where you think it is among the best you've ever had in your life. I have a fond memory of watching everyone else picking the grayling flesh with their fingers, sucking on the skeletons, slurping up the beans .

Yeah, one of those nights. And somewhere out there too was Mr. Grizz. A bit of aurora came out, spent most of night talking and stoking fire to stay warm as the temps were dipping into the teens. Was darn glad when daybreak came and we could get hiking and moving again.

Here's a shot right after we set up drying Dave's clothes and got fire going. Dave on left, my son on right. Pic after that is Dave with grayling.
Best to all,
Mark
  (http://www.alaskabackcountryhunters.org/Pictures/Sept18%202006%20Siwash%20Camp.jpg)

  (http://www.alaskabackcountryhunters.org/Pictures/Dave%20with%20grayling.jpg)

I just jointed, I believe in what they are doing!