by Angela Wilkinson “What’s that smell?” a first grader remarks as I lead my last tour around the William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery. I take a deep breath and think hard about the fishy odor I have grown so used to during my three month internship here at the hatchery this past summer. I tell the first graders that it’s the smell of fish and it’s the best smell in the world. I take the opportunity to ask this group of children if any of them have caught a fish before and, as usual, I learn that less than half of the group has ever been fishing. Fishing was…
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Land Rediscovered
By Simon Frez-Albrecht Anticipation—and exasperation—had been building all summer toward this one special day. I had the fortune of stepping in right at the end to wrap up loose ends and hop on the bandwagon. By the time I showed up, hundreds of hours had gone into planning and arranging the logistics of putting all 35 first-year students at APU on the Yukon River for ten days, not to mention the 10 staff going with them. The last week before departure, the students spent their mornings in class while we shopped for food and sorted gear. In the afternoons, we conducted lessons in wilderness living, basic water rescue, and geared…
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Haunting Tales
by Brance P. Peña As October concludes in its festive glory, it is impossible not to indulge in the fashionable darkness that the western world has modestly raised us on. This day is wholly dedicated to quality scares, horrendous sights, wicked practice, and candy. Though we only get one day of the year to truly hone in on, and appreciate, these dark pleasantries, it should come as no surprise to us that fear is alive and present, every single day. This article offers three stories, petrifyingly terrible in their own unique manners. The first tale is one of a near-death experience on the Eagle River; the second, a spectral…
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Take That, “The Man”
by Evan Nasse Originally posted to the 49 Writer’s Blog When I was first asked to be a guest blogger for this website, I had already sat through a 2 hour lecture from a Pulitzer Prize winning author, and had two of my short stories passed around a 400 level college writing course to be dissected and workshopped. My work was—is—going to be exposed; some will like it, others might hate it, there will be criticisms constructive and destructive in nature. Last year I was one of three scholarship winners for writing, and each of my professors that approach me and tell me I’m a brilliant writer have only read…
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Tiny Dancer
By M. Erickson It’s funny how certain songs can define an era in your life. The chords make their way from the speakers to your ears then right on in to your heart. In high school, the movie Almost Famous was released, and with it a whole new chance to fall in love with Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.” It’s a great sing-a-long song, you almost can’t help but join in with the chorus: Hold me closer tiny dancerrrrr, count the headlights on the highway… My friends and I sang it all the time, especially on long road trips—my friend Terry would always do this little dance with his hands to…
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The Hunt
By Evan Nasse In my garage sits the skull of a caribou. It has a misshapen rack, jutting out the top of a bright, white, sloping caricature of an animals face, pockmarked with several holes. Where there was once a mouth, for the lackadaisical chewing of cud, are now rows of cracked teeth, and further up the snout are two empty spots where once eyes beamed. There, just above the right eye socket is the hole where I unceremoniously placed a bullet, using a worn hunting rifle owned by my grandfather. The miserable creatures’ offset rack and dome-piece sit bolted onto an ornate, hand crafted, wooden mantle. It was constructed…
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The Way Forward
By Simon Frez-Albrecht Wintergreen spice lingers in my nose from when I first cut into the branch. My forearm is fatigued and swollen from wielding my axe and gripping my knife for hours today. Smooth facets glide under the rough pads of my fingertips, left by a sharp knife on the surface of this spoon I have carved. I probe for unacceptable imperfections, barely perceptible even to my experienced touch. The spoon is not perfect of course, but it must be exact in a few certain ways to reach not only its potential of elegance in appearance, but also be pleasurable in the hand and delightful on the tongue. I…
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Winter Wilderness
By Simon Frez-Albrecht We began Winter Wilderness with a busy few days in which we frontloaded as much information as possible. Ideally we would have taken the whole class before taking the class, as there was much avalanche and safety information to learn quickly, as well as efficient and comfortable winter travel and camping skills. The first few days were long and packed with as much as we could handle, but we soon found ourselves at Hatcher’s Pass, unloading skis. As we unloaded skis and packs in the Hatcher’s Pass parking lot on our first day, some students had been on skis exactly once or twice before in their lives. Looking…
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Sheldrake’s Shin
By Hillary Hafner The day my wrist broke, Instant Karma showed up in the mail. The prescribed painkillers directed to be taken every four to six hours, so the time spent staring at my wall was time spent pondering or reading. I was comforted by Sheldrake’s descriptions of much more severe injuries, like having to wear a leg cast designed to make his bones rub together for seven months. However, when I felt my own broken bones scrape each other, the wrenching pain shot up my arm and I felt dumb. I felt defeated. I felt that I had failed. I questioned my own motivation for pursuing this sport that…
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A Winter Adventure
By Emma Walker For the better part of my childhood (and by childhood, I mean age five or so to the present day), anytime I was cold for more than about an hour, I absolutely insisted I was being frostbitten. Despite my tendency toward melodrama, I have always enjoyed cold weather activities, even the ones I suspected might result in frostbite. And so, armed with approximately 4,000 calories per day, I was excited for a ten-day expedition into the Alaskan Interior for Winter Wilderness Skills, a block course offered in January at APU. In order to mentally prepare myself for a week and a half of frigid, sleepless nights,…
