Just spent the last two weeks in the Alaskan backcountry with Aaron Bloomquist’s Alaska Outfitters Unlimited. If you have been dreaming of hunting Alaska, I highly encourage you to give Aaron a call.

If you have been following me for a while, or if you’ve read SAVAGE SON, you know how much Alaska means to me and how it features in a storyline that explores the dark side of man through the dynamic of hunter and hunted.

As I write in the preface to SAVAGE SON:

Hunting and war are inexorably mixed.  They share a common father.  Death begets life, and in defense of oneself, one’s family, one’s tribe, or one’s country, killing is often part of the equation.  Throughout most of human history, defeating an enemy in battle led to the survival of the tribe and the continuation of the bloodline.  The same tools developed to defeat rivals in combat are analogous to those used in the quest for sustenance.  Similar tactics are used to hunt both man and beast.  Those who picked up a spear to defend the tribe were the same ones who used that spear to provide food for their families.  The reason each and every one of us is alive today is the martial and hunting prowess of our ancestors.

We’ve been hunters and warriors for the majority of our existence.  Only recently have we evolved, or possibly regressed, into beings with no connection to the land or the wild animals that inhabit it, while also outsourcing our duty to defend our families and our country.  Whether this is “progress” remains to be seen.

Will there come a day when our survival depends on those primordial abilities?  I suspect so.  It might not be tomorrow or the day after, but then again, it might.

In either case, we would be wise to be ready. . . 

The hunt took us to the Wrangell Mountains.  I was after moose with my friends and fellow Pineapple Brothers Jon Dubin and Frank Lecrone.  Want to hunt axis deer or mouflon sheep on the Hawaiian Island of Lanai?  You can book though John Burrell’s High Adventure Company.  If you see us hanging at the bar or pool, stop over and say hello.  I usually have a book to sign in my backpack.

We flew into Anchorage and of course had to make our traditional stop to see Kevin Dana at Barney’s for last minute gear.  We then drove about five hours east to Chitina where we loaded Cessna 185 bush planes for flights into the Wrangell Mountains.