Yukon bush life

If we ever leave the bush it will be because of conversations like this- “Who was it in Gladiator? Australian.” Long pause. "Can’t think of anyone Australian. Except Rolf Harris.” “Neither can I.” “Mel Gibson!” “Younger.” Longer pause. “One syllable name, though.” “Definitely.” Hours later… “Russell!” “That’s it. Simon Russell-Beale? No. Wait. Simon Beale… Russell Beale… Russell Crowe!” It’s like living in the world’s most remote old people’s home. Things we once knew are slipping away and our minds are gently filling with snow. I get The Economist online every Friday to stem the flow but it doesn’t help with trivia. Dawson City in the distance, open lead on the Yukon to the right Thank God we can get to town now and have other input. We don’t have our shorter river trail in yet so are doing the long route, downriver and back over the mountains, a 160 mile round trip. Cassiar Dome just before dawn, no filter ...

We’ve had a few moose encounters recently, the most significant being the one I shot. The Tr’ondëk Hwich’ën people believe that if you think about an animal, you draw it to you. I thought about nothing else as we hunted and later, processed the kill and so we’ve had lots of moose visitors. I am now thinking hard about fine wine and vast sums of money. I imagine the theory is only for animals but you never know.  (Update- a kind friend gave me a bottle of wine yesterday. It works!) Hunting by boat We started hunting early. I’ve learned a lot about moose from people here and from reading blogs. The rut is around the last two weeks of September. Bulls don’t come down from the mountains til it gets cold. Best time to hunt them is just before dark or just after sunrise as they move around at night, or round midday when they tend to get up for a stretch. Moose tracks and Neil prints on the beach From the moose themsel...