UNFORGIVEN
Next morning I shouldered my backpack, turned south toward the headwaters of the Koyukuk River, and vanished into a clean, new world where the past didn’t matter.
Rainbow Connections
To fish for rainbow trout in an Alaskan river at dusk is to tempt a monster. Depending on where you’re fishing – say, a wilderness dream like Southwestern Alaska’s Alagnak; the swift, mountain-clear waters of Southcentral’s Russian; or an evening tide in April on the whiskey-tinted streams of Southeast’s Prince of Wales Island – nighttime here is the venue of 20-pound legends.
The Savoring Season
Transient, brief, but roaring in color; sweet with berries and alive with wild creatures, autumn in Alaska is medicine for the heart.
Little Grouse on the Prairie
I’d come to hunt a vestige bird, a prairie grouse whose origins can be traced to Alaska’s bygone steppes. Commonly associated with the fields and dry gullies of the American West, the bird I pursued was the sharp-tailed grouse.
What the Coho Said
An 11-pound buck with a faint ruddy blush attacked so swiftly that I scarcely had time to react. Pow! Leaping two feet into the air, haloed by a galaxy of droplets, the fish resembled an exploding star.
The Art of Grayling
Ancient, elegant and, in a most innocent sense, gullible, grayling are unique characters cut from the rare and precious tapestry that is Alaska. For a few old-timers (and for this one in particular) they compose the first lines of a long, colorful angling story.