2008 My Year in Review

Hello all trailbuds, I hope you all had as wonderful a Christmas as I did. Now on to the next one - about to turn a new year. Giving much thought as to what to write about ending this year and looking forward to the next year about to arrive, I threw another log into the fireplace and sat back down and drifted back and thought about what 2008 was all about for me here living in Willow, Alaska.

Looking back at all the adventures I went out on and reflecting on those memories through all the pictures taken. Some great memories as well as some great times. Over winter, as always, there are my friends I feed daily as well as watch and observe, photograph...the birds. Then spring came and I was allowed the opportunity to watch and move with 2 of the biggest bull moose, well into their spring antler growth, over several days of hanging around the cabin finding them both in the woods and again out in the meadow. Although I never felt endangered being so close to these big bulls, I found by talking to them in a quiet voice seemed to disspell any harm they might have felt by my presence. At one point following them out in the meadow, one of the bulls had turned to look at me as If I was lagging behind and needed to catch up to them. A great experience, well remembered. Spring into summer also brought a lot of rain for us up here in 2008. Which was disappointing, thus keeping us off the lakes pursuing the many variety of waterfowl, from the loons to other types of ducks. We did get some breaks here and there where I was able to catch up with the loons, both common and pacific loons, and get some darn good pictures out of them. Other adventures lead us down to the Valdez area and into a National Park larger than Denali, a place called Wrangel-St. Elias Nantional Park. One could realy get lost down there as the town of McCarthy has no goverment. More land than one could imagine. Still most of the summer up here was more rain than we cared to deal with. And with all that rain, the leaves stayed on just a bit longer before falling to the ground. Denali National Park was nice to drive the 90 plus miles seeing the interior of this park as well as some of the caribou and dall sheep along the way. With all the rain I knew we would be getting early snow and we did the first week of October. 2008 I could honestly say was about all the rain we received as well as the amount of snow, judging the snow depth around the cabin - snowshoes should seriously be considered before venturing out for the day's adventure. I have encountered friends diagnosed with prostate cancer to losing an aunt to cancer as well. I count my blessings everyday with living my dream here in Alaska. While the lower 48, as well as the Nation, seemed to have its own set of problems, I am sure it will slowly catch up to us up here in Alaska. These past couple weeks around the state of Alaska have been hit with some very cold record temperatures. As always, I record the daily temps and compare them to those from last year. It realy isn't that much fun at minus 18 degrees, waiting to minus 11 degrees to go out and photograph the birds.

Ah yes, it too may be about the birds in 2009 as well! Since October the birds up to now have been a lot of fun to work and watch. Now as I put my thoughts into the remaining day of 2008, the temps are dipping down into the minus 25 and minus 30s range around the cabin, thus putting more logs on the fire, umm...the warmth. Well I hope for all of you, the ringing in of the New Year will get better for each of us.

I have to apologize to all my trail buds as I have kept a secret from you! Over the past 3 years I have been sharing many of my adventures with an Alaskan gal who also has the same interests and love of the outdoors as I do. Her name is Destiny! There are now 2 rocking chairs by the fireplace. Destiny and I finally took the leap and got married after 2 adventure filled years and as of August we have been married just over one year. Here's to more fun and outdoor adventures down the trail.

Wishing you all just the best where ever you might be. See you on down the trail...

Buford T. Porcupine