Best Story of 2016

What a dilemma!

What story of all the front page stories in "the Mountaineer" for 2015 was the best story?

Honorable mentions included the cattle crossing the Missouri, School goes to a four day week, KFBB, Kamut, Housing in Big Sandy, Tavie Kipp comes to Montana, Reinholt Bitz's story of World War II, the Cooks Thanksgiving Roundup and Knife, Gun, Family, Friends, and Wilderness, the story of Bob Nelson's hunt in Alaska this fall.

Now, of course if you measured stories that were important to the community the school four day week story would have to take the honors. Who could not give an honor to Reinholt Bitz and his wonderful account of his life in World War II? And yet, maybe there was one better than all the rest.

Best story of this year was in the December 16th issue of "The Mountaineer". It was Bob Nelson's Alaska Trip. "Knife, Gun, Family, Friends and Wilderness.

Here it is one more time!

From September 5 through the 15th Bob Nelson was in Alaska on a hunt with two of his sons, Mark and Lance who both live in Fairbanks, Mace Mangold and two Alaska residents.

As Bob describes the hunt which yielded two grizzly bear and three moose, it is more than a little like a mystic experience. Read "The Bear" by Faulkner or see the movie "The legend of Bagger Vance" and you will begin to know what hunting, camaraderie, family and friends begin to mean to Bob Nelson.

And how they all intertwine into the story of those days this fall in Alaska.

The hunt consisted of several two man tents, one larger tent, several blue canvas tops and three boats on the Koykuku River.

The first miracle was that the group got two non-resident moose permits for that area.

They spent 2 weeks in the rain according to Bob but it simply did not matter. The hoards of bugs did not matter either.

And, a little dram of booze every once in a while simply made great things even greater.

Bob explained that the men had what is called a rustic camp. They hauled all their supplies and equipment in and set their camp up in the rain. Gnats were terrible when it wasn't raining.

"I had to learn to drink coffee with a bug net and that takes some practice," said Bob.

The men cooked food outside underneath the blue tarps with a stove and one wall tent. Most of their meals were concentrated which turned into ten minute meals. Add two cups of water and cook ten minutes and you have good food. Well, sort of good. Good enough but Bob was quick to say that at home they had prepared their own instant food that was even better than what they bought. Advice from Bob. "If you are buying dehydrated food, 'Mountain House' is the best brand."

And you might pick up a "Jet Boil" which boils water in one minute. Great for hungry hunters.

The group drank their coffee (and Bob said they drank plenty of it) in a French press. He said it made wonderful coffee.

Don't get to feeling sorry for them. They feasted on tenderloin and bear scraps as well which was just that, a real feast.

Bob said that so far everything he has related is part and parcel of the typical hunting story but there were very real differences. Talk about people, Bob said.

"Friends, family, hunting, camaraderie are all big for me," said Bob. "I love the outside, the environment and what we were given there. The rivers in that part of Alaska are huge. Think of the Yukon going all the way to the Bering Sea and only having one bridge all the way. It is all one big wild space."

Bob went on to say that a lot of it is people and what they and you do.

"I had not had a lot of time to spend with my two sons for a long time so that made this a very special time for me," Bob added.

Friends and family are big. That is the background for what happened on that hunting trip.

"To think that my kids growing up in Big Sandy got to know those two old guys manufacturing guns. My son Lance wanted one of those Little Sharp rifles to take on this trip. It was almost impossible, the list of people ordering those guns is so long but Ron and Duke moved Lance up the line a little. There were some problems. Lots of issues but the gun got done in August. I loved that it was what is called the Krag caliber which is a 30/40. That is one of the first smokeless powder guns. It is very original and a very neat cartridge," said Bob.

Bob continued, "Here we are. A buggy moose hunt mostly in the rain. Two hunts a day. I hunted with Lance and his 30/40. A moose came out and started to cross the slew. Lance grabbed his gun which looked like a Red Rider and off he went ahead of me. Like Davy Crocket. This man and this very little gun. I will say it again. This great big moose, this little tiny gun and Lance and a perfect shot. Lance took one of the cartridges and gave it to me to give to Duke and Ron."

An aside.

Bob has family in Cascade. Family and friends and he do a lot of fishing and hunting with that family.

He was with them fishing on Hell Creek at Fort Peck. Bob caught a snag and hauled up an old old cedar fence post. The friends kept the fence post and turned it into the handle for a very beautiful knife. A knife that Bob will cherish all the rest of his life.

"I used that knife in Alaska and on that moose," said Bob.

Those things turned that hunt into something much larger than a hunt. But then Bob thinks that most hunts are just that, something bigger and better than just chasing after an animal with a tiny, tiny gun.

Would Bob go back to that land of gnats and rain?

"I have to get the application in by December 15," said Bob with a big grin on his face.

Afterward

So, a hunt or a metaphor for something else?

When Bagger Vance is talking to Captain Junah about golf, is he instead giving us a prescription not only to get through life but to get through well?

In "As I lay Dying" and "The Bear" by William Faulkner is he really talking about a bear and an old person dying? Or are they stories about failing, enduring and prevailing?

"The Mountaineer" had a poem by William Blake, "The Tyger" to go with a magnificent picture of a mountain lion swimming across the Missouri River. When Blake asks the question in two stanzas,

"When the stars threw down their spears

And water'd heaven with their tears:

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?"

"Tyger, Tyger burning bright

In the forests of the night:

What immortal hand or eye,

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?"

Is there a recipe for life trying to emerge from those lines?

So, Bob has given us a great hunting story................

A story about a knife, a gun, family and friends, and wilderness.

A hunting story? Or is there a prescription for living life well in there somewhere?