If I'd have had a few more days to hunt, I would have waited for the clouds to lift. With less than two days, I decided to break down the camp I'd just set up and move to lower elevations. Eventually I got beneath the clouds, but this put me in very mediocre country for hunting. But given the dense fog up high, mediocre was better than the place I'd come from. If we waited for circumstances to be ...  Read More

I was by myself- deep in the mountains- hoping to find a moose. Well, that's not exactly accurate. I hunt hard and I ALWAYS find moose. I was trying to find a LEGAL bull. For those of us who are stuck hunting off the road system, this is the area where skill and hard work play a minimal role. You see, we can only shoot a spike/fork or a bull with an antler spread greater than 50 inches. So- I was ...  Read More

Many studies have been done proving that physical appearance provides great advantage (or disadvantage) for career applicants. Beauty and fitness for women and strength and height for men are a distinct advantage. But here's the thing- those qualities have no correlation to excellence in performance of the job.What correlates to high performance and success? Kindness, work ethic, being a 'team pla...  Read More

So yesterday I had an 'emergency' root canal. It's a little bit like self-inflicted torture. Why in the world would a person put himself through that? Not only was the procedure extremely uncomfortable, but it cost more than I paid for my truck. The answer is obvious- I did it because of the payoff on the other side. I had a painful infection that was severe enough to keep me up all night- for sev...  Read More

Though primarily looking for moose, I planned to check on my ram the following morning. If he was still there I planned to go get him in the daylight, when my hunting partners would be able to watch me in the spotting scope the whole time. In the morning, my sheep was gone. Circumstances often dictate our plans, don't they? Other than a grouse that I knocked out of a tree with a rock, the day was ...  Read More

I was serving as 'guide' to a father and adult son on a moose hunt. Both of them were out of shape, and they were very insecure woodsmen. I spotted a legal ram on the other side of a small, steep gorge. By myself I could easily have been on the ram in less than an hour, but it would have been well after dark before I had it packed out. I was facing a dilemma. Neither of my partners were fit enough...  Read More

I know that you have faith, but is it STRONG? More than strong, is it VIBRANT? In other words, is your faith not something you 'believe' so much as it is a reflection of who you are? Vibrant faith impacts every moment of the day, every decision, every relationship, every conversation. You weather life's storms because life for you goes much deeper than your present circumstances. Jesus said, "Come...  Read More

The temperature is a balmy 5° and it's snowing again. First, the clouds move in, hovering over the mountains, then the heat rises, and then the outpouring begins. Years ago on the Isle of Lewis in the New Hebrides, a spontaneous worship service was finally dispersing close to midnight. God had been stirring the hearts of the people for many weeks. A young man told pastor Duncan Campbell, "The Spir...  Read More

The temperature warmed up to −5° yesterday, so I decided to break in a snowshoe trail. This serves two purposes. First, the snow where I've broken trail will 'set up' and become hard and thereby easier to walk on. Second, the next time we get a big snow dump my trail will still be visible. Having a path to follow, especially in the dark or in white-out conditions, is a tremendous advantage. When f...  Read More

The 4' tall grass kept moving above us as some kind of large animal made its way toward us- 15 yards... 10 yards... 20 feet... 10 feet... We had our rifles up and ready to 'fire.' It was a little surreal. The animal was so close and yet completely hidden. Though I was new to Alaska and had never shot a bear, I couldn't imagine what else it could be. Whatever it was, it was walking right into us. A...  Read More

I was backpacking with a friend into Ptarmigan Lake near Moose Pass. We were on a narrow foot trail about halfway up a mountain and paralleling the valley. In some places grass about 4 feet tall bordered the trail. We paused at one of those places to glass the valley below us for bear. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the grass above us moving. Something big was walking toward us, but it wasn...  Read More

5:15 AM and I've been shoveling for the better part of an hour. The weather is clear and cold. Though not full, the moon is just bright enough to cast faint shadows on the ground. For me, there has always been something peaceful about shadows. Psalm 91:1 says, "Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty." We rest secure knowing God is with us. We see the...  Read More