Posts with the category “daily-devotions”

A part of me was made for wilderness. In the past two days I saw hundreds of caribou and a great deal of wolf and grizzly sign. I climbed two mountains in a place so remote that it is very likely that no one has ever set foot on the ground where I was walking. I was contemplating this almost magnetic 'draw' I feel in those places. I've decided that it's a longing for home- for eternity- and that t...  Read More

I was in the mountains without cell reception today. Though I am getting older, the 'high country' remains my happy place. When I am alone, the climbing is easier. Thisis because I am able to go at MY pace, which is considerably slower than most of the guys who are sheep hunting. Every person has an individual 'rhythm' for optimum productivity. Some people need a laid back, stress-free work enviro...  Read More

Climbing a mountain isn't something that appeals to everyone. It isn't pleasant... often it isn't fun... but it's GOOD. Most of life's GOOD things include HARD things... GOOD HARD things... things like work and study and effort and sacrifice. But those who spend their lives trying to avoid hard things end up in a much harder place! The party life- a life centered on pleasure- always leads to pain....  Read More

Heaven is real. It's a place, it's out there. Jesus literally ascended into heaven- disappearing in the clouds as his disciples watched. He will return the same way- coming in the clouds. This is a profound mystery, because things happen in the spiritual realm that are much different from the normal 'laws of nature' on earth. 'Ascending' defied gravity. 'Appearing' in the room with his disciples (...  Read More

We had the coldest spring in 50 years and the wettest July on record. This made for an even shorter summer in a place that is known for short summers. My lilac bush bloomed late in the first week of July, and in the first week of August almost all of the blossoms are gone. It simply reminds me that we are surrounded by 'temporary' things. Isaiah 40:8 says, "The grass withers, the flower fades, but...  Read More

39 roses. It's an odd number, to be sure. Each one represents a different year of my life. No, I'm not saying that I'm 39 years old- that birthday is well behind me. It's been 39 years since I said two little words that changed my life. I said, "I do." Those words are not a guarantee, they are a covenant promise. A bride and groom promise to LOVE each other. They do not promise to be IN love. They...  Read More

Except for the fortunate few who live in remote places, the logistics of hunting Alaska are very different from climbing into your tree stand after work. For most of us, every hunt is an expedition. Planning and packing are critical to success- even more so if you are flying in a Super Cub. Weight and volume matter. The goal is the lightest and best quality and least amount of gear that you can ge...  Read More

Occasionally, when hiking across the arctic tundra, you'll see a flash of pure white on the ground in the distance. Like deer, moose and elk, every year caribou shed their antlers.  It is possible to go for days without seeing a caribou, and yet to pick up a number of sheds or even an entire skull and antlers off a wolf kill. It is rock-solid evidence that life was once here- that a caribou once s...  Read More

In the mountains, the weather can change almost in an instant. On our first morning in the Brooks Range that worked in our favor. All night was 100% cloud cover and rain, so when we stepped out of our tent early in the morning to blue sky, it immediately lifted my spirits. A lot of time and effort went into this hunt, and I wanted the girls to enjoy it. Good weather is a gift that Alaskan hunters ...  Read More

After driving nearly 800 miles and then flying in a bush plane, I was disappointed that I couldn't get my girls on a nice bull caribou. We were hunting for our winter meat, and a big bull has fully twice the meat of a cow. Even so, my girls both shot caribou and then helped cut them up and pack them out- one load of meat at a time- in their backpacks. There was no complaining, no "This is too hard...  Read More

When I say that the great strength of a woman lies in her femininity, I do not mean to equate her feminine nature with being afraid of hard labor or getting her hands dirty. Actually the contrary is true. My daughters are as comfortable in the wilderness wearing a backpack as they are in a city wearing a dress. When I took the two of them caribou hunting north of the Arctic Circle, I was proud of ...  Read More

To be a 'princess' is wrapped up in the heart of a girl. And why not? Deep inside every little girl knows she was created to be a daughter of The King. Her true strength- her greatest strength- is found in her femininity. It is a magnificent thing to be 'woman' created in the image of God. There is something forceful- regal- about a woman's strength when it is cloaked in gentleness and good humor....  Read More

For many people, Alaska is an entire 'world' away from family. And for most of those people 'outside', it seems even farther than that. This makes those times when family come to visit us extra special. This last week, my mother and three of my nieces made a very short visit. We shared meals, games around the table, prayer, and- yes, Alaskan adventures. Family was God's idea. He created the very f...  Read More

Twenty years ago I screwed up my courage, bought 7,000 linear feet of log from a mill, and built our house. You see, Laura and I wanted a home that could host large groups of people, and in six years of looking couldn't find a single one that we could afford. Choosing to host others serves a number of purposes. 1) Gratitude- We've had dozens of mission teams come to Alaska to help build our church...  Read More

The world in front of me was almost entirely without color. Of course there was black and various shades of white and gray, but no blue sky, no green plants, no flowers, no sun. It was barren and lifeless. The Gulkana Glacier's moraine became more and more desolate as I continued to climb. Sometimes life feels that way, doesn't it? Our circumstances seem gray and dull- lifeless. But as I looked cl...  Read More

Friends of ours flew up from Florida, rented a car, drove far more than 1000 miles, took a bus through Denali National Park, and in all that time never saw a moose. After enjoying dinner at our house, we opened the door to let the dogs out and a bull moose was standing at the foot of our steps. That's Alaska. That's just life, isn't it? It's often said, "There are no guarantees." That is only part...  Read More

My bear was down- one of the biggest interior grizzlies I'd ever run across. Properly skinning a large bear without help is very difficult. It's impossible to hold up a heavy leg, run a knife, and peel hide at the same time. Add to this that I wanted to keep the meat clean. I've hunted by myself for many years and knew exactly what I needed to do. With strong parachute cord around a tree, I was ab...  Read More

It was one of those rare occasions when everything worked out perfectly. I only had one night to hunt. I had seen sign of a BIG bear in the vicinity... and I only had to wait an hour or two before I heard him coming. Unlike that of the bow hunters who 'pass' on many nice bucks- waiting for just the right one- much of Alaska is not 'game rich' country. I often hunt years at a time without seeing a ...  Read More

Now it was simply a waiting game. The bear had come back on the same trail last night. I was high in a tree 40 yards off the trail. It was 7 PM and I intended to stay until dark (midnight), hoping the bear would use this trail once more. As always, the mosquitoes were so thick that I wore a headnet, two layers of clothing, and rubber surgical gloves. Still-hunting is torture for me, so years ago I...  Read More

Though walking quietly, with the small amount of noise that I was making i knew that I had virtually no chance of stumbling on this bear in the timber. They say that bears have poor eyesight. This may be true, but I've been 'spotted' on more than one occasion at over 100 yards and had bears take off running away from me. Then, again, there have been a few occasions when they've been closer than 10...  Read More

I had my rifle but I wasn't expecting to see anything. I was on a trail that was a mixture of tundra, black spruce and birch, choked with willow brush. It was impossible to move quietly. When I came to a muddy spot, there was a huge grizzly track in the trail. It was fresh and moving the same direction as me. I only had two days to hunt.  I wondered if he would come back along this same trail. How...  Read More

My kids also grew up loving the snow. At some point every August they could see fresh snow on the distant mountaintops, and there would be a collective, "Yes!" This would be followed by my audible groan. You must understand that the snow doesn't melt away from our yard until early May. How could they be excited to see it coming in August? To me that still doesn't make sense. But then, over half of...  Read More

Winter has always been part of my life. When I say 'winter' I don't mean, "It's chilly outside. Let's grab a jacket."  I mean long periods of everything covered with snow. As strange as it may seem to you, I love winter. But that's because I'm not battling to survive. Because I know that my hardship is temporary, it is much easier to endure. In fact, one of my favorite things is to come into my ca...  Read More

There is something I love about being the first one to make tracks on a fresh blanket of snow. It isn't the trail I've left behind me, it's the untouched landscape before me. It somehow feels like the world in front of me has endless possibilities. It's true that a thousand different things that could trip me up are buried several feet beneath the snow, but I'm living above all of that. In the hig...  Read More

When I say that I've spent hundreds of days on long Alaskan snowshoes, I am not exaggerating. I wore out one pair and patched them up again and again with 550 cord and various lashings. Except for possibly my friend Roger Huntington, I don't know anyone who's spent more time or walked more miles. Snowmachines changed winter travel, didn't they? I love my snowmachine, but there is something beautif...  Read More

'Tuck-A-Duck-Away' (Tuck) was an exceptional bird dog. He loved the water, was utterly immune to cold, and often hunted at temperatures of −30°. After hours of working the willow brush for birds, plunging through deep snow, the only evidence that he was a normal dog was that even he could get tired. When we were between willow patches and traveling rather than hunting, I would break trail for him....  Read More

Every winter hundreds of Alaskans excitedly buy their first snowshoes. Then, they go up into the mountains, spend five minutes plunging through the snow to their crotch and trying to pull their snowshoe up out of the hole, go back to their cars and never go again. Why? Because those cute little and midsize snowshoes need dense snow- the kind you get in states with warm daytime temperatures- the ki...  Read More

After Laura and I got married, I began picking up one good piece of hunting equipment each year. The first year was a Hoyt bow, then a Bibler tent, Sequel raingear, and a Feathered Friends lightweight goose down sleeping bag. The better that I was equipped, the better I was able to endure Alaska's harsh conditions. Are you 'well equipped' for adversity? It isn't hard to get there. Attend a strong,...  Read More

One of the hard things about Alaska is that our hunting and fishing seasons are so short that you are forced to choose between good options. This is why I don't fish Coho (Silver) salmon or hunt ducks in September. Getting a moose or caribou has always been higher priority. But one year when my parents were visiting us in Copper River, I had all of my meat in the freezer early enough to fish. My d...  Read More

This was my first and only attempt to get a Dall sheep with my bow. As a young man I was an avid bow hunter, and had already taken elk, antelope, whitetail deer, black bear, moose and caribou with a bow. I knew what I was doing... but you can't plan the weather. It was August 10th, I was in the Brooks Range above the Arctic Circle, and it was snowing sideways. Everything was perfect except for the...  Read More

When I said that my assistant wrestling coach Tim Hand is the strongest man pound for pound I've ever known, let me brag on him for a moment. At our very first wrestling practice, I was stunned by his cat-like quickness and obvious power. At 5' 7" and well over 200 pounds, I didn't expect this. After practice, I asked Tim how much weight he could bench press. He is truly a very humble guy and said...  Read More

Dall sheep hunting in Alaska is extreme. There is a certain willingness to embrace suffering that is an absolute necessity. Carrying a heavy load up a mountain is crushing. Carrying a ram down a mountain is even worse. You must be prepared to sweat profusely as you climb, to be wet for days on end, and to be shivering cold when you stop to glass. The payoff for those fortunate few is a beautiful r...  Read More

While Laura's climb ended with disappointment after she missed a trophy Dall sheep, she continued to venture into the wilderness with me.  On our next trip, I made sure that she had all of the right gear, and she took her first caribou. On our first trip, she had intended to relax at camp with a good book while my partner and I hunted moose. Of course any smart (physically fit) hunter heading into...  Read More

There was a time in my life when I was pretty much the worst hunting guide ever. The Alaskan wilderness was all new to me. My rain jacket and pants came in plastic envelopes and cost .99 cents each. It can be no surprise, then, that when I took Laura into the wilderness to go moose hunting, I didn't buy her boots. In fact, she didn't have any hunting clothing at all. I had not yet learned the crit...  Read More

I was clinging to the outside of an upside-down raft in Class V whitewater and the freezing cold water was sapping my strength. In fact, I didn't have the strength to drag myself out of the water to get on top of the raft. I needed a rescue. In my generation, American men were taught to be proud of being independent- to do things on our own- to not need help from anyone. The problem is that there ...  Read More

Finding the rope on the outside of the raft and pulling my head above water were major victories, but my problems were far from over. Even with a dry suit, the 35° water temperature was rapidly taxing my strength. I had been flushed through a gorge while under the raft, was now in a calm (but fast) elbow of the river, and I could hear the roar of waterfalls in front of me. Life often hits us with ...  Read More

And just like that, we were upside down. If you've ever been trapped under a raft in Class V whitewater and lived to tell the story, you are fortunate indeed. In a matter of seconds I had swallowed mouthfuls of water as I plunged my arm out and up- trying to find the outside rope on the raft tube. Trying to rescue yourself while being flushed through a gorge underwater at a frantic speed is an int...  Read More

Hospitality (opening your home to entertain others) is somewhat of a lost art in our modern world. On America's frontier, with most people living in one or two room cabins, it was common to find travelers or other guests sleeping on the floor. Not only did settlers make room, they were excited to have 'company.' In today's culture, people are far less excited about a knock on their door. As Christ...  Read More

You haven't really lived until you've sat in a tree until midnight covered with mosquitoes. Okay, just kidding. Even so, I have done that many times- a few of those with one of my kids. Some people are natural born 'still' hunters. They thoroughly enjoy the experience of being in a stand or sitting out in the wilderness with their binoculars. For me, sitting still is torture. I've always been that...  Read More

A little over a week ago I had one of those rare mornings I had the opportunity to climb a mountain with both of my daughters. This is rare not only because they are both busy wives and mothers, but because one of them lives in Georgia. No, it wasn't on one of those warm sunny days. It was raining and foggy. I would describe it as a PERFECT morning in IMPERFECT conditions. So often people miss out...  Read More