The shack is out

[Akhardwater]

Came up fri morning and made the super sketchy 15 mile ride to get to where I store my shack.  Pulled it out onto the ice with zero problems.  I broke trail on my new trap line with my snowshoes and made a few marten and wolverine sets so hopefully all that work I did this summer pays off with a bunch of fur.  The ice where I’m at is 8-10” but there are open methane holes and lots of overflow in the patches of snow on the ice.  Hope everyone has a safe season.



Oh and this is what partially frozen listerine looks like.

[WARRIOR_ON_ICE]

Sounds good. I have always laughed at the label on Listerine " Cold weather may make this product cloudy, however its antiseptic properties are not affected "   

Good to read about someone on the ice already somewhere.

[WARRIOR_ON_ICE]

This deserves a BUMP ! C'mon everyone this brother is on ice already, this thread should be getting tons of action !

[Ronnie D]

My question would be : for what reason does a slushie need mouthwash in a shanty?
& no one's chiming in cause there just as jealous as i am.
Stay safe & straight lines to ya

[Akhardwater]

I appreciate the kind words Warrior.  I think people would be a little upset if they new that we’ve been able to ice fish since the middle of October.  As far as the listerine goes I’ve actually seen it were it was a solid block of ice.  What’s really impressive is when you get out to your shack and find that your bottle of crown has turned to slush that’s when you know it’s cold.  I think it needs to be at least -45 for that to happen.

[WARRIOR_ON_ICE]

Alaska - it is not called " The Last Frontier " for nothing. As amazing a place as it surely is, I would not be able to handle the rigors involved with life there, after 57 years of getting softer by the year in NY. I do appreciate that there still places in this world that people are insignificant in, wild Alaska being one of these. I get intimidated now just thinking about getting off a trail in the Adirondacks and having to spend an unintended night in the forest. Hardcore Alaskans would feel crowded even in the most sparsely populated portion of the Adirondacks.

I am also getting more and more afraid of potential wildlife encounters, specifically with NY's largest animal the black bear, even though surprisingly I have yet to ever see one of these during all of my times hiling here in the past 4 decades. I am not equipped in the least to successfully handle the sight of, let alone a negative encounter with, a grizzly bear. I am thinking about soon taking my first trip to Yellowstone and Glacier NP's, which have grizzlies. I doubt that I will stray more than 50 feet from my car when there, that is how much fear I have about Grizzlies. And those are relatively civilized states with smaller bear populations, compared to Alaska.

Most of Alaska and Canada are places that I am glad the world has not lost yet, places where the wilderness calls the shots, not people, and if you don't respect those rules then you will die and nobody will be there when you need help.

[fish/hunt4ever]

Do not need to have fear of the grizzlies just need to respect them and give them.space when you see them. I luve out here in wyoming a couple hours from Yellowstone and hunt most years up towards there where grizzlies are numerous, we actually need to start hunting some to.put the fear of humans into them like Canada and Alaska, but that is for another discussion. I have been so close that I could reach out and scratch a couple behind the ears and one was pretty intense as all I had was my bow as we could not carry in those days, and the other I had my rifle so I felt a little more in control. If you have the fear buy some bear spray and have with you as that will help deter any bad encounters if you know how to use it, even works on black bears so would benefit you at home even.

Sorry to steal the thread, awesome looking shack and glad you got out on the ice, just starting around me and finally got out a couple of times myself. Hope you get to the shack and catch what you are after.

[WARRIOR_ON_ICE]

The key words are " when you see them " . In most of the fatal maulings I have read about, it seems that the victims were pounced on with no chance whatsoever to prepare for anything. Some of them highly experienced back country hunters and hikers. I also read something in which an expert said that there have been cases in which a grizzly was shot by a high-powered rifle and still kept coming to finish the shooter off before itself dying. An adult grizzly has a super low pulse rate of 4 beats / minute and for that reason, a fatal gunshot wound may not fully take effect for a couple of minutes and allows the bear to cointinue mauling you to death while it is slowly dying.

[Akhardwater]

I’m up at my shack now checking my trap line and the thought of a bear never leaves my mind.  Even in winter it helps to still keep your guard up as the occasional winter bear is still a possible and terrifying threat more so than in the summer.  Bears come out of hibernation from time to time because they did not put on enough calories and are essentially starving to death and therefore can’t hibernate.  These bears are highly aggressive and will dig up hibernating black bears and eat them and unfortunately will attack and eat humans if you’re in the the wrong place at the right time.  Now mind you this is a very rare occasion that this kind of thing happens but when you’re snowshoed in 3 miles and all you have is a .17hmr you can’t help but let your mind wander.  I love the fact that I get to share the land with such an awesome predator and having a healthy understanding of these animals makes me feel a little safer but I never let my guard down.  I’ve found that I have more problems with moose than bears and having been charged by many moose I can tell you honestly I’d rather deal with a bear.  Moose are unpredictable and it’s very hard to read their body language so I try to give them a lot of space unless I’m trying to stick an arrow in one obviously.  Bears on the other hand wear their emotions on their sleeves so to say and with one look I can tell you if a bear is going to be a problem or just wants to mind there own business.  Time of year also plays a big part in a bears mood, if they have lots of food they generally don’t care that you are ten feet away fishing as well.  I’ve shared many a river with big mature brown bears and never once felt that I was in any danger, mind you I never let the bears out of my sight and I always carry a form of bear protection that I feel comfortable using.   Now with all this being said playing the rule of odds at some point I will have a negative encounter with a bear and have to protect myself and all I can do is hope that I am prepared for the encounter and that I live through it.  I like talking about bears and wolves and stuff so don’t feel like you hijacked the thread, and Warrior I would highly advise you to come to Alaska and see this place first hand.  It’s nothing like that scripted crap that Hollywood makes it out to be and we haven’t had a tourist eaten in at least 4 years😉

[WARRIOR_ON_ICE]

I’m up at my shack now checking my trap line and the thought of a bear never leaves my mind.  Even in winter it helps to still keep your guard up as the occasional winter bear is still a possible and terrifying threat more so than in the summer.  Bears come out of hibernation from time to time because they did not put on enough calories and are essentially starving to death and therefore can’t hibernate.  These bears are highly aggressive and will dig up hibernating black bears and eat them and unfortunately will attack and eat humans if you’re in the the wrong place at the right time.  Now mind you this is a very rare occasion that this kind of thing happens but when you’re snowshoed in 3 miles and all you have is a .17hmr you can’t help but let your mind wander.  I love the fact that I get to share the land with such an awesome predator and having a healthy understanding of these animals makes me feel a little safer but I never let my guard down.  I’ve found that I have more problems with moose than bears and having been charged by many moose I can tell you honestly I’d rather deal with a bear.  Moose are unpredictable and it’s very hard to read their body language so I try to give them a lot of space unless I’m trying to stick an arrow in one obviously.  Bears on the other hand wear their emotions on their sleeves so to say and with one look I can tell you if a bear is going to be a problem or just wants to mind there own business.  Time of year also plays a big part in a bears mood, if they have lots of food they generally don’t care that you are ten feet away fishing as well.  I’ve shared many a river with big mature brown bears and never once felt that I was in any danger, mind you I never let the bears out of my sight and I always carry a form of bear protection that I feel comfortable using.   Now with all this being said playing the rule of odds at some point I will have a negative encounter with a bear and have to protect myself and all I can do is hope that I am prepared for the encounter and that I live through it.  I like talking about bears and wolves and stuff so don’t feel like you hijacked the thread, and Warrior I would highly advise you to come to Alaska and see this place first hand.  It’s nothing like that scripted crap that Hollywood makes it out to be and we haven’t had a tourist eaten in at least 4 years😉

AKhardwater, posts like this are what I live to read. You are a modern day Jack London and more. If I ever do decide to go to Alaska, I would want none other than you showing me around based on the knowledge you have.

[WARRIOR_ON_ICE]

Akhardwarter, I sent you a PM