Alaska Wild Adventures
George and Jill Davis
P.O. Box 1343
Kodiak, Alaska 99615
1 (407) 492-3551
akwildadventures@gmail.com
http://www.alaskawildadventures.tv
ALASKA MAN
by
George Davis
Co-Author Jill Davis
True story of George Davis’ adventures growing up and living in the “Wilds of
Alaska”
Prelude
I had been watching the weather and thought I had a shot of making it back to camp
before dark. I had already been feeling anxious knowing that I had gotten a later start
than intended, and that I was going to have to probably land my plane in the darkness. I
knew without a doubt that I had to make it back to my set net camp where my brother
Greg was waiting for me. Greg had throat cancer and this could very well be my last
bear hunt with him. I fought to keep the super cub under control as I headed through the
mountain pass. The wind was gusting up to 40kts on the upward side of the pass creating
severe updrafts and turbulence. It was very difficult to keep the aircraft under control. I
was visualizing what my good friend Iron Mike Ivers from Yakutat had expressed to me
to practice and get proficient at. He told me to fly the mountain pass on clear days and
mark the dead end canyons on my chart. There are many canyons and crevices, and one
wrong turn means death. Alaskan Bush pilots call it cumulus granite. Now I was flying
on the leeward side of the pass, I glanced at my instruments and was descending at 1000
to 1500 feet per minute. Even with the engine at full throttle, and the trim set for the best
rate of climb, I was still getting sucked down rapidly. I was hitting pockets of turbulence
that would thrash the plane around like a kite. Looking out of the airplane window to my
right, the mountainside loomed 300 feet off of my wingtip. This was a bad situation;
there was barely any visibility from the heavy snow showers, about ¼ of a mile at best.
Sweat was pouring off of my brow from the tension of keeping my plane from crashing.
My brother was waiting for me at camp and death waited for me with open arms on the
side of a mountain.
Chapter 1 North to Alaska!
I had dreamed of going to Alaska since the tender age of ten. My brother Greg, whom
was twelve years older, shared this vision of living off the land in the wilds of Alaska. I
poured over books and photographs and wanted to learn how to hunt, fish and trap just
like the Alaska wild mountain men I had been reading about. It was all I could think
about.
My father, George Sr., owned a Tool and Dye business in Michigan, and was a private
pilot. When I was 12, I started flying with my dad. We would rent planes, and I started
learning how to fly. By the time I was 14, I was flying different types of aircraft three
days week, and put in as much stick time as I could. At 15 I started taking lessons from
an instructor.
Greg’s work in construction made it easy for him to relocate and find work most
anywhere. He finally made the decision to head North to Alaska, but unfortunately his
first wife did not share his dream. Greg had to make the tough decision to make the trek
to the last frontier alone. Later he met Jane, who shared his passion for the 49th state
and they began the adventure to Alaska together.
Greg and Jane returned to Michigan two years later expecting a baby. They talked with
our parents about the opportunities in Haines, Alaska. Our Dad George Sr. was excited
about the idea. I desperately wanted to attend the Air Force Academy then on to become
a fighter pilot. My dad was all for it, however my mother was firmly against it. I began
talking with my brother more about life in Alaska. I was enthralled when I listened to his
stories about living in the wild, fishing, hunting, trapping and being a mountain man. I
already had a thirst for adventure and a burning desire to go to Alaska. The loss of my
aspiration of joining the Air Force, combined with the timely arrival of my brother with
tales of his life up North could make my dream into a reality. I was dead set on going to
Alaska with my brother period!
Greg talked our parents into coming to Alaska with us to check out the prospects. The
adventure was to begin. Greg and I jumped in his white Chevy van. My Mom, Dad,
Jane, and newborn baby Dawn Rene traveled in our parents four door Oldsmobile and we
all headed Westbound for Seattle. We drove to Chicago, then West on I90 to Seattle.
When we arrived in Seattle four days later, we stayed at the famous Edgewater Inn on the
waterfront for three days while waiting excitedly for the Alaska State ferry, the
Malaspina. The spectacular voyage up the inside passage from the Port of Seattle to
Haines, Alaska takes 3 days. The first Port of call was Ketchikan, Alaska. The next
stops were Wrangell, Petersburg, Juneau, and then finally Haines. After Haines the ferry
went on to Skagway, turns around, and makes the same stops on the way back to Seattle.
I was thrilled taking this trip. The scenery was spectacular, and I fell in love with Alaska
seafood. The ferry had a full service restaurant on board and I was so impressed with the
King Crab Louie, and Halibut Fish & Chips, that I made the decision right then and there
crabbing and being a commercial fisherman would be something I would pursue, along
with the hunting, sport fishing and trapping lifestyle. Haines is a beautiful quaint little
town that had a population of approximately 500 people at time which included the little
native village of Klukwan, which is 22 miles up the road in the Chilkat Valley right on
the bank of the Chilkat river. Haines looked like something out of National Geographic,
with scenery that looks like the Swiss Alps. It has sweeping views of steep rugged
mountains, beautiful valleys and swift rivers that flow in to the Sea. It was February, and
Haines was buried with 15 feet of snow. February 7th 1971 saw the arrival of the Davis
family in Haines, Alaska. The town had been battling a wicked winter and they were
struggling to dig themselves out of a bad snowstorm. After checking into the
Thunderbird Motel, Greg did his best to show everyone around his new home town that
was buried in snow. Even some vehicles were completely buried, but that did not bother
me. On the other hand, our Mother, Alberta, but everyone called her Birdie, was used to
her creature comforts of fancy living in Michigan. She decided then and there that the
small town Northern Exposure Alaska life was not meant for her. The first words that
came out of her mouth were "When is the next ferry out of this town?" At the ripe age of
15, I decided right then and there I was going stay in Haines with my brother Greg, his
wife Jane, and baby Dawn to live out my dream.
My father asked me if I was sure that I wanted to stay. He wanted to make sure this was
the right decision I was making for myself. He told me he did not want to get a call in a
few weeks or a month from me crying or wining to come home, and that if I did want to
come back to Michigan I was going have to find my own way. If I wanted to make adult
decisions for myself, I was going to have to take responsibility. I was dead set to live this
Mountain man lifestyle and I said “yes, for sure I was staying.” 36 hours later after the
ferry had gone to Skagway, turned around and made its way South back to Haines. Mom
and Dad were back on the ferry headed to Seattle where they would then make the trek
East back to Michigan. I knew I was finally home!
Even though I had dreamed of living in Alaska, understandably it was a bit of culture
shock. Life certainly was anything but easy. Jane had just recently given birth to a
daughter in December, Dawn Rene, just two months before we arrived in Haines. It was
a tough time of year to be looking for a place to live, but we ended up finding a small 28
foot Silver airstream trailer in Port Chilkoot. It had one small bedroom, and one small
bathroom. I slept on the sofa under a cracked window covered in visqueen plastic that let
the snow blow in on me when the wind was really howling. Port Chilkoot was a different
part of Haines. It was actually a Fort/Base one mile south of town that was built back in
WW1. It had barracks, military housing, and even a recreation hall that had a bowling
alley and gym. The snow storms kept coming and we kept getting hammered. I actually
had to go to people’s houses and dig out their front doors because the snow was so deep
people were literally trapped in their homes with snow up to the windows.
Greg started a Karate class. With his background training in the Army Special Forces
Green Beret division, Greg excelled at Karate after he was out of the military, and
became a black belt. I had been studying Karate 3 years in Michigan prior to coming to
Haines and had my Brown Belt. I helped him instruct the class. We taught our class in
the basement of the local bowling alley and bar. Being only fifteen, I had to head off to
school each day, which ended up being a very tough situation for me. Since I was from
Michigan, the local kids considered me an outsider at first. I was not readily accepted
and my head definitely was not on school. Instead of keeping my thoughts on books and
class, I caught myself daydreaming about being out in the wilderness starting my life of
hunting, trapping and fishing. I did meet and became close friends with a girl my age
named Lisa. She was the daughter of my brothers close friend Ernie.
Being the new kid is tough enough, but being in an isolated place like Haines was even
tougher. Just to explain how isolated Haines is; The Canadian Border is a forty two mile
drive. It’s 250 miles to the town of Whitehorse, Yukon. In another direction, it is 330
miles to Beaver Creek, and then you enter back in to Alaska from the Yukon. Its 585
miles to the town of Glenallen, 640 miles to Fairbanks, or 860 miles to Anchorage. The
only other option for traveling is to take a ferry ride or fly a plane 15 miles North up to
Skagway or 90 miles south to Juneau.
Right off the bat, the school tough guy picked a fight with me by accusing me of taking
his school book while we were in the library. This did not sit well with me, and I stood
up to him. I am not the kind of person that will take being bullied or intimidated. We got
into a confrontation, and I ended up fighting him. He threw the first punch and I blocked
it, counter punched him once and knocked him flat on his ass. In one punch the fight was
over. This unquestionably landed me in the principal’s office. I was in the principal’s
office often, and was sent home a few times. I was finally expelled for two weeks after
getting into a fight with the principal and picking him the up by the front of his jacket and
hanging him up by the back of his jacket on the horns of his Mountain Goat Mount on the
wall of his office. They called my brother at Snobble's Lumber Mill, and he had to take
off of work to come and get me. Needless to say, he was pretty angry at me. Another big
difference from what I was used to was the dating scene. In Michigan, dating was
formal, and I took girls out on dates. Boys were expected to show etiquette. In Alaska
girls we very advanced, and going to parties with older boys. I had never had a problem
finding dates, but in Haines instead of me making an effort to ask a girl out, I had
numerous girls chasing me! My problems with the principal and other factors I ended up
barely passing that year of school. I turned 16 that March.
My first spring in Alaska before fishing started, Greg and I went Black Bear Hunting. I
had some money saved, and had bought a used 375 H&H Magnum model 70 Winchester
for $300.00. I shot my first Black Bear almost two months after my 16th birthday on May
10. Greg let me shoot the first Black Bear of the season. I was so thrilled to be living out
my dream! We skinned the bear and packed out the meat and hide down the mountain. I
shot the bear on a bench that was at about 500 ft elevation. He was out feeding on a
dandelion patch.
We butchered and froze the bear meat. With the bear meat we made sausage and jerky.
This became an annual tradition for us. Greg had already spent two seasons in Alaska
and had been fishing with a local Native family. Since I was here now, we would be
fishing together. We got our commercial set net permits to fish for salmon. Back then
anyone could buy a commercial set gillnet license. Later the law changed to what is
called limited entry. That is where the state of Alaska limited the number of permits that
could be issued for the different Salmon fisheries. We outfitted a friend’s unheated shop
with a barrel stove and started building a wooden 16 foot skiff. We named it The Last
Chance. We headed out to the end of the Chilkat Peninsula to Seduction Point, with
some building supplies and our skiff with an Evinrude 50hp OMC Motor. We had
enough lumber to build a 12x16 stick frame cabin. We brought out a little cast iron wood
stove, a Coleman camp cooking stove, and lanterns. We set up a mooring buoy and
running line to anchor up the skiff out in front of our cabin. We set 4, 50 fathom that is
300ft long by 30 ft deep set nets out. How we make a set is by tying one end of the net
off to a big rock right off the beach, then stretch it out off of points where the fish are
swimming by in schools. The other end of the net has an anchor on the lead line, and a
big orange floating buoy on the cork line. The “set” is perpendicular to the shore. The
top of the net floats with corks, called the cork line, and the bottom of the net is a heavy,
with a weighted line called the lead line. Fish are ensnared usually by their head or by
their gills in the “mesh” netting, hence the phrase “gill netting”.
The nets are set strategically along the shoreline in the best possible place to catch
schools of salmon. The first salmon to run are King Salmon "Chinook" then the Reds or
"Sockeyes". We look for the best points where the fish are going to be traveling through.
Sometimes people actually dispute over the areas that produce big sets. The areas that
have good salmon runs are highly sought after. To keep catching fish we had to work the
nets keeping them clean of seaweed and kelp. We would also get the caught fish out of
the net in to our boat as soon as possible. If fish see other fish hanging in the net, they
will dodge the net and go around it. Ice was not yet used at that time, and the fish needed
to be removed from the skiff quickly. A few tender boats sat out in the peninsula. The
cannery we sold our fish to kept a tender out on the fishing grounds to stand by near
Seduction Point. We would call the tender on the VHF radio when our fish totes were
full. This usually that meant we had about 100 fish. Sockeye weighs about an average of
7 pounds a fish. When we call the tender to come pick up our fish we call this “pitching
off”. On a good day we would catch about 200 fish, so we would pitch off on average 2
times a day. Tenders carried other supplies for fisherman on their boats. They had gas
and groceries and we would buy supplies from them, so we could stay out fishing and not
have to leave the fishing grounds to go to town. At that time the openers ranged from 3
to 4 days a week. After the opener was over, during the “closure” we had plenty of work
to do. There was cleaning the boat, totes, and repairing nets that had been damaged by
fish and sometimes seals and sea lions. There was also maintenance to keep our outboard
in good running condition. During the closures we do what we Alaskan's call subsistence
fishing. It is the same as set netting but you cannot sell your fish. They are strictly to be
used for personal consumption. When we subsistence fished we “put up” fish. This
means filleting and filling pint size mason canning jars full of fresh fish, then pressure
cooking them. It was our goal to put up 30 cases of pint jars a year. We call this “fresh
pack” salmon. Fresh pack means pure fish, with no smoke. We built a smoker and
would do smoked salmon as well during the closures. We did our smoked fish in a
variety of ways. We made dried fish, and sqaw candy. Squaw candy is strips of salmon
smoked and dried until fully cooked, and hard like jerky. Then some batches of fish we
would only 1/2 smoke it until barely cooked. Then we would jar this fish in a pressure
cooker for the pantry and gifts in pint and ½ pint jars. The jarred salmon will stay shelf
stable this way for years, but only if it does not get frozen. If the jar of fish gets frozen it
turns mushy. We worked seven days a week during the Salmon season. Three days a
week fishing, then the rest of the week working on maintenance and putting away fish for
the winter. We usually put up about 30 cases of pint jars filled with Salmon. We put up
berry preserves, and had a garden. We canned up vegetables out of the garden as well.
All of this kept me pretty busy, but I did make time to get my sport fishing rod out. I
would catch Dolly Varden Trout near our set net site. I also learned how to troll for King
Salmon. That is how I caught my first King Salmon that spring, weighing in at 48 lbs. I
became avid at bottom fishing for Halibut, Cod, and Rockfish. We would put Crab and
Shrimp pots out, and the catch was plentiful! I was always sport fishing growing up in
Michigan and my thirst for sport fishing only increased when I was in this land of wild
and abundance.
The commercial fishing lifestyle is like farming and harvesting. You only have a certain
amount of time that is available for catching and harvesting salmon and berries, so we
work as many hours that it takes during these seasons. That is what it takes to prepare for
long cold winters in Alaska. While we were fishing Jane was taking care of the home.
She learned the Alaskan way of picking berries and putting up preserves that came in to
season such as Salmonberries, Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, Moss berries, wild
Currants, and high bush Cranberries. We did the catching and filleting of the salmon and
Jane would do the jarring and cooking. We all worked together as a family team.
Our Salmon season ended fishing for Silver/Coho’s and Chum/Dogs, usually near
Halloween. Now it was time to get ready for trapping! I was completely ecstatic to be
living out my dream. That fall Moose hunting opened in September. Greg and I both got
a Moose that fall. Moose are very large game animals. When they are fully grown they
can weigh on average 1500 pounds. When they are dressed out and all butchered up we
get an average of 500-700 pounds of meat from one Moose. With all the fish and Moose
we had put up we had enough food that we did not have to buy any store bought meat.
Trapping season started November 10th. We had a 50 mile trap line in 2 different
sections of the Chilkat Valley. Part of our trap line we used snow machines and part of
our trap line we hiked off of the road system on snow shoes. Greg had already put in 2
seasons of trapping and had learned a lot from an old timer Named Old man Hepler, who
had a Grandson named Sonny who was about 5 years older than me. Sonny was in the
Army, and I ended up meeting him that summer while we were out fishing.
Greg was already partners with a guy named Ronnie Fisk who was a professional
government trapper from Montana. I worked as a grunt for the operation just to learn the
trade. We had about 200 traps to set. We trapped for Wolf, Wolverine, Fox, Coyote,
Lynx, Marten, Mink, Land Otter and Muskrat. Both trappers that my Brother worked
with showed him a lot of secrets to trapping that were not well known and produced
major results. They used me a lot to hike with snowshoes to higher elevations. I learned
the ins and outs of how to be a professional trapper. I was in hog heaven and knee deep
in furs! Things were going good living life in the wilds of Alaska, and I had just
completed my Alaskan Initiation
Chapter 2 Spring in Alaska
Spending that first season in Alaska was a dream come true for me. Everything felt
perfect. It was not an easy life, but I could not imagine living any other way. Greg told
me that he was going to be working for a famous Big Game Guide, Duncan Gilcrest.
Greg would be working as an assistant guide. An assistant guide helps Master Guides in
the field with the hunt. This includes setting up camps, cooking, helping spot and track
animals, help pack out animals, skin, flush and tear down camps. He was going to be
working for him in May assistant guiding for Black and Brown Bears. I asked Greg if
Duncan needed any help and was willing to do anything just to get my foot in the door.
Duncan was a pilot and had a super cub. I wanted to stay flying and pursue getting my
pilots license. Greg asked Duncan, and told me that he could use my help. Fishing starts
in June, so in between hunts, Greg and I would start getting our fishing gear ready. The
first thing we had to do to get ready for fishing was get our nets out of storage. We had
put our nets away in the fall. In the spring, we would fix and re-build them like new for
the upcoming season. Next we would get our boat in the water, and go out to our cabin
to get it opened up and ready for the summer. Sometimes animals like squirrels would
get in our cabin and we would have a mess on our hands. Everything was going smooth,
we worked for Duncan that spring, and we fished all summer and did very well. I even
got in a little bit of flying in Duncan’s Super Cub, pilots call it stick time.
During the summer while we were out fishing Thomas Williams’s son Sonny came out.
Thomas is one of my brother’s native friends who had taught him a lot about fishing. His
son, Sonny was a little older than me, but we hit it off when we met. Sonny was on leave
from the Army, and had to go back. He was going to be done with his duty soon and
coming back to Haines. Just after meeting and getting to know Sonny, I could tell we
were going to be doing a lot of adventures together. Greg and I kept fishing, and Sonny
went back to his station in Fort Lewis, Washington. Fall approached fast. While we
were fishing for Silvers, I got an urgent message from home. My parents called with bad
news.
Thank you for reading and hope you enjoyed this little teaser! We encourage you to
share this with your friends, but you do not have the permission to sell this
information. This book is property of George and Jill Davis, and cannot be sold altered,
or re-produced. This is a sample from the Novel, Alaska Man. It has not been edited or
published. Please contact us if you have any questions!
George Davis email; akwildadventures@gmail.com
Website; http://www.alaskawildadventures.tv
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