Spring trip to Alaska. Been saving for this for about 3 years!
Always wanted to go up there and have a look around!
Chartered a plane which dropped us off in the WRONG location!
(boat or plane is the ONLY way to get around most places)
Had enough supplies for 4 days and 3 nights, and a good map.
GPS alerted us to the fact we were more than 200 miles from where we were supposed to be...
And we were at least 10 days from nearest civilization on the map! I had a general map of the area (thank heavens!) but my detailed maps were of our intended camping/hiking area! (The word 'SCREWED!' comes to mind!)
Just in case you haven't been in any really RUGGED terrain, 10 miles might take two days or longer to cover, so you don't plan for 'Miles', you plan for 'Days' to your destination.
Nothing rougher than glassier boulder fields and broken Gannet rock hills! This is going to be a 'Challenge' to put it mildly!
Second day...
Girl Friend drops pack with tent/1 sleeping bag and half the food down rock face, we spend all day, about 10 hours climbing down, trying to retrieve it, just in time to find out something beat us to it...
Everything is pretty much trashed, and now we know there are bears about...
And we are down to less than half the food we set out with, and we are a day behind...
I've still got the 12 ga./extra ammo, fishing gear, cooking gear, navigation stuff (map, compass, GPS, ect.) one sleeping bag, some food and oddly enough, I get stick with ALL the water bottles!
(you NEVER go anywhere without a 'Bear Gun' in the area we were in!)
The bad part was our bug spray, particularly the mosquito repellent was in her pack, and the bear seemed to have a taste for it...
That means only face nets and little bottles of DEET from belt packs both of us carry...
Day 3. Debbie KICKS a rather large, odd looking salmon out of the water!
Hadn't seen a fish all day, and it would have taken quite some time to get the fishing gear out...
I had the bright idea to stick it with my knife, but she KICKS it out of the water and I kicked it farther up the bank...
This thing is pretty big, which make it even more odd she could KICK it out of the water,
But it makes for food for at least two days!
I really LOVE fresh fish grilled!
Day 4. Trees!
Where we were was mostly rocks and water.
Then we got into where the river had trees!
Both of us trying to sleep under one bag with no tent was beginning to suck! You know women, she wanted on top because the ground was cold and hard, and she wanted to ball up in the bag...
Bug spray running out and the mosquitos are trying to carry me off!
Ran out of camp stove fuel and it rained like crazy just after midnight...
Trees mean we can make a shelter pretty easily and I don't have to be the 'heat pump' and 'Shelter' for her all the time!
The thought crosses my mind that I can cut the travel time in half and have ALL the blanket if I ditch the woman!
Day 5. Saw a BIG FRIGGIN' BROWN BEAR in the morning!
Within 60 yards of it before either of us saw it!
Don't know a Grizzly when I see one, only seen them in pictures and TV...
But this thing sure looked like one and it was HUGE!
Had a head as long as a HORSE and twice as wide!
Much more interested in digging for something than messing with us, and I'm GLAD about that!
Trying to take on a Grizzly with a buck shot slinger isn't my idea of fun...
I loaded up the Slugs and looked for the 'Bear Spray'...
It's gone too! Hope the first bear liked it!...
Saw what we think was a Moose later in the day.
People tell us that Moose are pretty reclusive, but can be aggressive during mating season...
He gets close enough, you can call him 'Lunch'!
But with a 12 Ga. he's going to have to practically commit suicide for use to have 'Moose burgers'...
Day 6. Saw what I'm sure was a Moose this morning. WAY far away, but plenty odd looking and moved like a moose.
Shot two rabbits. Got both with one shot! Never even seen the second one until we went to pick up the one I saw/shot! BONUS!
Salmon and 'Cheesie Mac' are getting old so the rabbit and rice soup and roasted rabbit over a hardwood fire was pretty darn good and is going to make more than one meal...
Saw a plane and a helicopter today heading up the next valley from us... It's quite a ways off, but there must be something going on over there, and according to the map I have, our valley and that one come together in a few miles.
Saw the strangest thing today... I'm not sure it was real...
A woman that actually admits some of the blame for the predicament she's in!
I think it was a hallucination or mirage or something!
If my video camera hadn't gone over a cliff, I would have liked to get that on tape!
Day 7. Found fresh trash about noon today.
Food wrappers, water & beverage bottles with paper labels still on them, look new. Can't be more than a day or two old. Found half a bottle of Gatorade, wanted a drink so bad I couldn't stand it until I saw the cigarette in it! (Jerks!)
Too bad we don't need some water bottles since this stuff would be perfect if we didn't have any...
Odd stuff in the trash too, lot's of duct tape that has been cut off something, and no fire pit like you would expect a from a fishing camp...
Almost EVERYBODY builds fires, for warmth, to help keep bugs and bears away, to cook fresh fish over, ect...
About 50 yards away from the trash pile, there was what looked like a 'lean to' shelter someone had built, and the leaves weren't even wilted on the branches they had used.
Shot a squirrel for dinner, but he was so small it barely made soup...
Any meat is good meat!
Day 8... Late...
We had already started looking for straight branches or saplings to make shelter out of when a helicopter landed about 400 yards away!
Couldn't believe it!
Ran over there to try and catch the pilot so he could radio our position in...
Turns out they are filming a nature show and have been in the general area all week.
Some boob trying to show how 'Survival' is possible with nothing but a marble and a shoe lace...
they said it was going to air on the 'Green' channel, something I hadn't heard of at that point,
and I though it was pretty funny they were making a documentary for the 'Green' channel when they were leaving piles of trash everywhere!
Anyway, we had 'Starbucks Frappachinos' and a really nice catered oriental dish with shrimp and something I didn't recognize with the star of the show that was supposedly living on bugs, rats and bear pee...
And the crew.
The pilots and guides ROCK! those guys spent most of their time avoiding the production crew and so did we...
The pilots said if we had kept to our path in that valley, we would have run across a mine tomorow, so we were 'Found' no matter what!
Day 9, BIG BREAKFAST!
Really nice guided helicopter tour of some GREAT looking land and water...
It was only about 40 minutes from a 'City', but we took 2-1/2 hours getting there!
The pilot/guide seemed to know EVERYTHING about the country side and was amazed we were marching up river, (the correct way to find help in this situation),
weren't starving, hadn't deserted all our gear, and weren't totally freaked out about being 'Lost'...
He also said our 'Charter' service had done stuff like this before... Some people weren't so lucky...
IF you don't want to go to someplace they get commissions from, they drop you in the middle of nowhere WAY far away from your destination...
What pricks!...
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A couple of days later (and some McDonalds food and Benadril for the mosquito bites!), after we had seen the state troopers about being dropped in the middle of no where... Which they had heard that complain before and our pilot couldn't be located...
(so few police you have to wait to be arrested up there, and some people don't wait around!)
The pilot took us to a place where his dad owns a fishing camp...
GREAT PEOPLE! Good fishing, Stupid yellow dog that followed Debbie around like she was god all mighty!
Stupid yellow dog not withstanding, Alaskans are a smart, practical bunch and GREAT people...
Tourists, however, are stupid, wasteful, and inconsiderate...
....................................
You would think at least one bear would be easy to spot...
He's wearing my favorite boonie hat, sleeping in my $440 tent under my Girl Friends sleeping bag, is taping on my $1,800 digital camcorder, and he has 'Mac & Cheese' on his breath, and he smells like industrial strength mosquito repellent!
Might also be carrying a bear sized can of 'Pepper Spray' just in case he gets mugged by a criminally minded moose or something...
And BY The Way,
Every time I smell smoked salmon, I start looking around for bears!
Even in my own living room...
An ACTUAL Survival Tale...
LMAO !!!
A R Hammer, That was such an interesting (and cool) story! Thank you. I've heard other tales about Bear Grylls staying in hotels when he should have been out there roughing it. Anyway, I was always suspicious of his show; now, I simply don't believe it anymore. 
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