and Background
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Adventures and Background |
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I grew up on a dairy farm in East-Central Minnesota. My parents and grandparents owned about a square mile of land with plenty of woodland. Squirrels were the big game for my brother and me in those days. The map shows most of the family farm. One of the best deer stands around is in the center of the map in the biggest section of hardwoods. My parent's farmstead is just to the right of center. |
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In 2008 I retired from fighting wildfires as an Alaska smokejumper. Here's a photo from way back in 1982, with a smokejumper using an FS-10 parachute to jump to a fire in Alaska's Brooks Range. Click here to visit my smokejumper page. |
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I have lived for many years in this 16' X 20' cabin northeast of Fairbanks. This photo shows my pickup parked just outside my cabin at midday in January. With its half loft, the cabin is actually much roomier than it appears. I have a good oil-burning stove and all the normal comforts of home except for running water. Since there ARE running water and hot showers at Ft. Wainwright, where I work, it works out great. |
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In 2008 I will be attempting a hike of the Continental Divide Trail. Read about my plans and follow updates here. |
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In the summer of 2006 I walked and paddled over 1,000 miles across Alaska. It was one of the great adventures of my life. You can see some photos and read the story here. |
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The summit of Mt. Katahdin, at the end of my 2,168 mile backpacking trip along the Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Maine. To see more, click here. |
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The Gulf of Mexico, at the end of my solo 2,300 mile canoeing trip down the length of the Mississippi River. For the full story, click here. |
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My loaded raft against the colorful September mountains. I took this photo on a 700 mile solo hunt in the Alaska wilderness. I filmed this trip and it's now a popular video. Click here to see more photos of this trip. |
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Lisa Armstrong, Tom Boatner and I climbed Mt. McKinley (also known as Denali) in 1991. Believe it or not, it was Tom and Lisa's honeymoon! |
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Tom Boatner and I made a coast-to-coast bicycle across the southern U.S. during the winter of 92/93. I guess Al Biller was there, too. He took this photo of Tom and me hamming it up on the Atlantic coast at the end of our 43 day, 2,636 mile trip. |
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My brother Tom with a nice silver salmon he caught along the Goodnews River of southwestern Alaska. This was an awesome trip, with great fishing and wildlife viewing. Click here to see more photos of our float. |
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I've been lucky to have lots of time to travel, and spend some time on-the-road each winter. On one of these trips I saw this huge Cape Buffalo bull in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. |
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For 7 years I was in the National Guard, including 3 in Alaska where I was in an Airborne Recon unit. Here are TT Cole and I just before making a parachute jump on our way from Juneau to Anchorage. |
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We have revived the family tradition of making maple syrup! Click the photo for more photos and information. |
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Roderic Orr and I had some good days of fishing in Alaska. That's me with a nice king salmon. |
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OK how about a REALLY big fish, like this Alaska halibut my friend Melanie caught in May of 2005! |
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Here's Ken Coe hiking down the Oregon Coast. We spent about a month making this trip, and no, it DIDN'T rain every day! |
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A nice caribou I took out of the Mulchatna herd way back in 1988. My dad and brother each took bulls that were as big, or bigger. On this hunt we spent the worst night any of us have ever spent camping out. There was a FIERCE windstorm, where the wind screamed for hours out on the open tundra and it rained about 4 inches! One of our two tents was destroyed and we got thoroughly soaked. Because there was no firewood around, it took days to get dried out completely. Make sure you have a good tent, and set it up out of the wind in a spot with good drainage. We were prepared, but not prepared enough for that storm. |
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A Dall Sheep from the Alaska Range. Tom and Lisa helped me pack out this big ram. |
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A fine bull elk from Idaho. This resulted in the most brutal pack-out of my life, one heavy load each day for five days. Each load was 15 miles and a 6,000 vertical-foot round trip! |
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A nice Alaskan moose. Six miles one way, this was my second worse packout because my smokejumper buddies and Lisa helped me pack it out, in 100 lb. pack loads, all in one trip. They won't let me forget that! |
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A mule deer buck taken during the height of the rut in Montana. For the first time hunting muleys, I saw several nice bucks in one day. |
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A Polar Bear taken on St. Lawrence Island. No, I didn't shoot it, but I was there when some Yupik Eskimo hunters bagged it with several shots from a 220 Swift! |
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A nice whitetail buck I took in Minnesota as he stood on his hind feet while working a "licking branch." My first book Hunting Big Whitetails is about whitetail hunting. If you'd like to see it, click here You'd better hurry because they're going like hotcakes! |
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This is a huge old brown bear we encountered while fishing the Alagnak River. When it finally appeared as if he was going to end up in our laps, we yelled to spook him away. Click here see more. |
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| Canoeing the Mississippi | Appalachian Trail | Smokejumping | The Big Bear |
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