McKinley For The Afternoon: April 16, 2005

  • Fine Dining At The Latitude 62
    Ever the adventure-seekers they are, my parents wanted to take an afternoon off of seeing Ari to go see a little bit of Alaska. My wonderfully generous friend Chris Hodel agreed to take us up for a little flight. We flew about 45 minutes in his 206 up to the Mt. McKinley area, spent 30 minutes flying around, then stopped in Talkeetna for a walk and dinner at the Latitude 62 Restaurant. The flight back to town was only about 35 minutes. We flew a few hundred feet above the river for the first half of it, then climbed into the proper airspace before entering the pattern to land at Merrill Field.

Eddie & Jen's Wedding Weekend, San Francisco

  • Father & Bride Approaching The Hupa
    Eddie & Jen's Wedding Weekend was special in many ways: seeing a dear friend formalize the best decision of his life, bringing Ari to the town where Yael and I met, and most of all, catching up with dear friends.

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Bear "Hunting" In Katmai National Preserve?

For the third year in a row, the National Park Service has permitted bear hunting near some of the world's most famous bear viewing areas in Katmai National Preserve. Their view is that the bear populations are healthy enough to sustain a hunt and that we shouldn't humanize or personify the bears--they're just animals, just numbers in the "science" of game management.

My view, having observed these same bears in Katmai National Park, is that it's unethical. Thousands of Alaska visitors photograph these bears every summer in the Park. They've grown to trust humans and lost their fear of man. Just because the animal has wandered across the border into the Preserve, where's the fair chase in walking up to a habituated animal and blasting him for the head and cape?

I also think it's stupid economics. One hunter can go in and kill a bear that hundreds of visitors spend upwards of $500 each to fly in and view all summer long.

Watch the video and decide for yourself. It makes me wonder about the company that's flying these hunters in, True North Adventures ("True North Massacres" might be a more appropriate name). Their website says,

"True North Adventures is dedicated to bringing you the finest hunting, fishing and wildlife viewing trips on Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula."

If this is one of their "finest hunting trips," then I'd sure think twice before hiring Jim Hamilton and True North Adventures to take me on one of their flightseeing or fly-in fishing trips! 

Comments

What kind of "small petered" "POS" needs to kill a helpless, trusting animal? I love to shoot but I can't see killing an animal if you don't need to eat it.

So I guess you hate native americans and eskimos for hunting too?

comon hunting is great u should try it sometime..

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