Absolutely beautiful! Glad to see the fire didn't put an end to your adventure.

Thanks for sharing! Looks of the head on those lakers it should have weighed more!

Bushman it's funny you tell that story, I'm driving down to OK and as I was coming through out of Whitehorse, I found an AM radio station I got to listen to a Ballard , it was called the Ballard of Barnaby Lake, but it's a little different, something about whiskey and getting drunk and dancing with a wolf and sow with Cubs. I liked it
There sure is some pretty country up there

AK - I've always been told that a big head with smaller body is the sign of a slow growing population, like these northern lakes.

Songs about wolves and whiskey can't be bad.

We caught quite a few this size. When cooked they took on an almost yellow buttery colour and the flavour was fantastic.

While I was off exploring my partner is filming hummingbirds for the BBC. Here's something I've never seen, Rufus hummingbirds on a nest

Looks like a fantastic trip Brian! Great pictures too. A biologist told me one time that when a lake trouts head looks to big for its body it is a sign that the fish is going downhill for whatever reason. Not sure if thats true but I have seen it here too.

I feel better about eating them and taking them out of the gene pool now Dave, thanks.

The hummingbirds are still laying eggs, these are from Sunday

This nicely coloured black bear sow was small but had two cubs, one dark and one her colour.

I've had a stubborn leak on my cabin roof so I decided to do something about it. Started with a crazy carpet.




Ended up as a chimney gasket and the leak is gone

My son decided we need a new door on one of the other cabins. Big door with double side lights so lots of light getting through now




The hummingbirds are hitting our feeders hard





While I settled for elk steaks

I sure enjoy your journal.
The predator worship sickness started in the USA in the hippie era and has spread like a cancer worldwide.
Only we know and believe that predators need control. We are a minority and politics trumps over science. Even some scientists are on the protection side because of politics and money.

Once you're disconnected from the circle of life and death it's easier to start bunny hugging. Try having a black bear grab your grand daughter and see what it does to your attitude. I used to give black bears in camp one chance, now I give them one bullet instead.

Man Bushman that sounds like a story worth retelling if you already told it once.

I had a shifty black bear that stalked my camp. Used to lie under spruce tree and hide until your back was turned and then grab gear you just set down. I knew it was a bad one. I had my gun handy and told my family to let me know if they saw a bear as I was plugging it. I was sitting in my cabin when my 7 year old granddaughter burst in and told me she had just sen the bear.

Where?

Right on the deck and I just petted it!

I grabbed my 308 ran outside and saw the butt end of the bear running out of camp. i ran as fast as a fat middle aged trapper can move and caught up with it in open poplar. I barked at it and the bear stopped, stood up, leaned on a poplar and stuck it's head around the tree to take a look at me.

I take comfort in knowing I was the last thing that bear ever saw. It was not a big bear, 2-3 year old male my guess.

I went back to the cabin and got the rest of the story. Bear followed her up on deck, she thought it was my malamute so she turned and pet the bear without thinking. The bear recoiled, stood up, and huffed at her which was when She burst into the cabin. Still makes my blood run cold thinking what could have been.

And in case you think that's a one off I've shot 3 predatory black bears in 20 years and every one of them meant business. Young males every one of them.

I was charged by a small bear once.I was making a beaver set one evening early November I think it was.I was setting the crossover out on a fairly long dam.I was hunched down mking the set when I heard a rhythmic splashing sound.I looked around and a small bear was running along the dam towards me.I stood straight up with the sandvik ready to dent his skull.When I stood up he was about 30 feet away and put on the brakes and turned tail and ran back the way he came full speed.
I believe this bear was used to hunting the odd beaver,and when he seen me hunched over and smelled the castor on my clothes,he thought I was a beaver.When I stood up he realized I was something else and got a scare\surprize,lol.

Im loving your journal Bushman, always nice to see what you are up to out there, keep the pictures coming! And wow, thats a scary situation with your grand daughter. I agree with your logic though, put a bullet in those bears, they are nothing but trouble.

I got charged by a small bear a couple weeks ago. I was out canoeing and fishing for the day with a friend, and we pulled over to check out the rapids/portage trail. We started walking down the trail, and I just heard some faint noises that didn't seem right. So I stopped to listen, and didn't hear anything. So as we kept walking, I heard something again. I knew something wasn't right, and my friend says its just the wind. Now I'm just pausing and listening, I didn't want to walk any further. I could hear breathing, and then it got louder and closer. The bear was coming right towards us, so I grabbed a small dead tree on the ground and started waving it, and hitting some trees and brush while yelling at it. We had nowhere to run, so I figured standing my ground would be the only option in this case. Thankfully the bear go to about 10 yards and wasn't sure what it wanted to do. It paced back and forth huffing, snapping its jaws and swatting. My friend was behind me and I told her to just slowly walk back into the river and ill keep an eye on the bear. We backed up right into the water and let the bear calm down a bit. I figured hitting the water would be the best bet as I don't think a bear would be as comfortable attacking anything while in the current like that. Thankfully it ended up going back up the ridge, but still didn't go very far. I walked along the river to get the canoe, and promptly got the h#ll out of there.

If I would have had a rifle, that bear would have been toast. 99% of the time bears will be long gone before you even catch a glimpse of them, but theres always the one odd ball that will change your way of thinking. Don't let your guard down and don't be too comfortable around these guys, you never know which bear is having a bad day.

Seems any one who spends time in bear country runs into a bad one sooner or later. Thank goodness 95% of them are harmless. Do you remember Fred Trost and Michigan Outdoors way back in the day? He had a clip that a guy filmed while fishing in lower 48. It showed a small black bear stalking the angler and making a determined effort to take him down. The angler whipped it across the face with his rod several times and kept screaming at the bear. It went on for quite a while, can't remember how it ended, but he got away. That film sequence to me show a classic predatory attack. I suspect a 100 pound bear could kill an average person and even a superman on a bad day. You get ambushed from behind you could be in a lot of trouble. Don't forget to draw eyes on the back of your hat, throws predators off.

I've been lurking on a Canadian Auction site that specializes in Aboriginal and Inuit items. I finally bought my first item. A small scoop fashioned out of copper and musk ox horn in mid 1800's








Beautiful Amber colour