Pretty interesting podcast on the meateater channel

Very interesting.Spurred a lot of memories for me.
USF&WS and US Park Service are pretty much persona non grata in Alaska but this guy seems ok. Surprised I never ran into him when he was closer to my part of the country.
I wouldn't be surprised if Gulo and Pete in Fairbanks have crossed paths with him

I know Randy, built a birch bark canoe with him a number of years ago.

What a gorgeous canoe, Victor. I drew one very like that one for last year's WI NTA logo .

And, I really like Delta J area. When I was with JR I traveled there a lot. I like the proximity to the mountains and the military bases . A very nice place to live, to me.

I hope that canoe is still alive and well.

That was an excellent meateater podcast. Eric

Ken, He is more than ok! LOL. He's about as far from the folks that typically work for USFWS or NPS in AK as you can get. He's incredibly humble and accomplished, both in his personal and outdoors life, as well as professionally.

I never get tired of hearing his stories. I'm always learning new things from him every time we talk or spend time together in the field.

That certainly comes through in this interview.
Maybe someday I'll get to meet him !.

The local characters stories reminds me of the ones we have out here. Good explanation of how bush people spread out the trapping pressure.

Yes. I have always believed that 20-25 miles was the minimum distance between trappers

I also enjoyed that one. Very interesting guy.

Sounds like the spacing was for economic reasons. This area used to support more trappers on less turf per trapper when fur prices were better. Pre 1987.

Probably more $$$ in the state at that time too

Yes, Ken. I've bumped into Randy there in Fairbanks. Was going make birch bark canoe. He commented on my stripper canoe, etc. etc.

Jack

Thanks for posting it. So many stories to tell so little time. How life is when you get older.

I've never met Randy. Oddly, never heard of him either. One of my friends here in Fbks. knows him and lived in the Kandik R. country at the same time. Randy's story if pretty common actually, but many of the players are dead or gone.
The years 1975 to around 1990 was an attractive time to be a wilderness trapper in Alaska. I came in 1978. Settled in the Ruby, Ak. area. Usually had to go somewhere else in summer for cash income. Lots of money in the state back then. Oil was flowing and the state was throwing the money out. Yukon R. was a good provider of fish for dog teams. Randy says, "you can't move fish". That only applied to where he was, Kandik R. Other areas along the Yukon trappers would put up fish, mostly Salmon, dry them, then move the dogs and fish to trapping camp. There was land to be had or at least used. The Yukon R. was a hiway for boats in summer and dog teams/snogos in winter. The whole Yukon drainage from the mouth up to Eagle and up the Tanana to at least to Fairbanks used to support a Salmon economy. All 3 species of salmon that spawn in the upper Yukon and Tanana R. drainages are now in trouble. No fishing what so ever. I think it's the same way in the Kuskokwim country where White lives. Not sure about Salmon in the Kusko drainage but no one living remote any more.
That's all over with. Pretty sure there's no one wintering up the Kandik. Very few spending winter in a remote trapping camp anywhere in Alaska. Must be over a million pictures of that time period sitting in boxes around Alaska and down in the lower 48. I know I've got plenty.

Let them eat pinks! The BOF gave us a new 6 humpy a day limit to add to our 3 coho limit. Coho's got closed again. ( no fish ) and even the humpies never showed up. Everybody will soon be broke and hungry here.

We just had an advisory game board meeting here yesterday and the report from the Fish side indicated that escapement on kings and & dogs exceeded expectations. Might be a good indicator that things could be looking up in that regard.


Yep lots of pix from the old days stashed away somewhere.

So much changed in the early 1970's when "welfare" became a prominent part of the economy. Just about wiped out summer fish camps and winter traplines. It became a lot easier to stay home and collect your check at the post office than work 20 hours a day putting up fish to feed a dog team and your self.

I think that also led to a proliferation of bears on the landscape because no one was out there protecting their smokehouse from bears. That in turn had a detrimental impact on moose calves in the spring.

One thing always impacts another.

the dead dude story is funny