Doubletough contributor Beach Billy forwarded this photos from a client who was in Alaska earlier this year on a salmon fishing trip. Lots of bear sightings, wolf, eagles and more, see the photos and the story after the jump.
Digging deep into the Doubletough archives, I came across this one from 2006 that is absolutely remarkable. The incident occurred in October 2004 near Fairbanks, Alaska. To replace or update power cables, electrical crews will attach the new cable to the old, then pull the old line through, bringing the new line through the towers / poles with it. Slack occurs in the new line until the crew has it in hand and is able to tighten it.
In this particular case, the slack for the static line (a line strung alongside power lines to serve as a lightning rod) was hanging low enough for a moose to become entangled. As the crew began taking up the slack, unaware of the moose’s dilemma, they kept cranking in the line even as it required more torque than expected. Realizing something was amiss, the crew went searching the line for the problem.
They found the moose, still alive, lifted 50 feet above the ground. According to the report, the cable was slackened and the moose released but eventually dispatched due to stress from his ordeal. Local fish & game officials believe the moose was in full rut and upon seeing the cable moving up and down, decided to “challenge” it.
If you’ve been reading this blog since the early days then you may recall the story of “The Longest Minute”. It is about two hunters and their dramatic encounter with a grizzly while quartering a moose in the Alaska wilderness. It is a fascinating story written by Doug White, one of the hunters. But that’s not the reason for the post.
In the story, Reed Thompson, pictured here, distracted the bear long enough for Doug to free the pistol and take the single shot that saved their lives. At that time Reed was dating my cousin, Cooke Adams, and today I am proudly looking forward to future hunts with our newest family member! Reed proposed to Cooke on Thanksgiving and we can’t wait to get him into the Doubletough fold!
This story first made the rounds in January of last year and is such a feat, it deserves Doubletough status:
Fern Spaulding-Rivers of Talkeetna, Alaska at nine years old was an experienced hunter of that state’s top game species and on this day she was out with her parents in pursuit of bear. Her weapon of choice was a Remington 700 chambered in .375 H&H. Bear Hunting Magazine reported she had to take out a wolf “at 8 paces” when it charged them, long before they stumbled across the bear. Read more…
Doubletough pardner Billy Bertram aka Beach Billy forwarded this hero shot of his friend Andy Cool and his trophy. Andy was in Alaska back in May and knocked down this brute. From the looks of the landscape, it probably wasn’t to difficult to spot and looks like it was a glorious day to hunt!
This story was forwarded to me back in October 2006, about three weeks after the hunting incident it describes occurred. As with most forwarded email, it was interesting to look over the previous recipients and see exactly how it wound up in my inbox; it had definitely made the rounds, having been repeatedly forwarded to at least 40 folks until my friend, we’ll call him Bubba, sent it my way.
It’s a three page Word document and I read it twice, trying to imagine being there for all the drama. Then I opened the included photos. I immediately recognized the guy in the third shot because every picture I’ve ever seen of him, he has that same expression. The hero of the story, Reed Thompson, dates my cousin and both were in Alaska at the time of the incident where they worked as dentists. Reed is a big-time hunter and I asked him about this particular hunt and the story Doug White, the author, tells is exactly how it went down……… Read more…
