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Neighbor John

We were living out at Mirror Lake - in Peter's Creek (about a 45 min. drive north of Anchorage). Our family had just settled in, when our next door neighbor, John Pex and his wife, Patty stopped in to welcome us to the "lake" community. Now, Patty looked like any other housewife in America, but John was - as I had pictured in my verdant imagination, what an Alaskan man should look like - a cross between Grizzly Adams and a Lynryd Skynrd band member! A burly, intimidating looking fellow with a long red beard. I must admit, I was a bit fearful of him at first, but he proved to have the temperament of a big ol' teddy bear. Both our neighbors were friendly and welcoming, but Patty was more lively, John was on the laid bk side and more quiet in nature.

Since we were new to Alaska, John and Patty were helpful in answering questions we had regarding our new home. One of the topics that most fascinated our children(and us adults as well) were stories/facts about bears and bear attacks. My husband and I wanted to be thoroughly informed before we ventured out into the back country and the kids just wanted all the hair raising, gooseflesh-making horror stories !

At the time, John was the head surveyor with the State of Alaska, and it was his job to survey 150 acre native tracks of land out in the bush. He regaled us with many stories of his adventures including bear encounters. One day, as we sat on the Pexs' deck overlooking the lake/drinking one of John's homemade brews, Patty mentioned that John had won a medal/citation from the Department of the Interior for bravery. We asked her to tell the story and this is what we learned about our sweet and laid bk friend:

John was out surverying for the summer. I believe it was over in the Lake Clark Nat'l Pk area. Anyway, he was accompanied by two other surveyors/survey assistants - one male and one female. Evidently, the two had hiked up the trail ahead of John. (Most bear attacks occurr when a bear is surprised - either when it is feeding on a moose kill, or traveling along with young cubs). In this case, the two unfortunate surveyors surprised a brown bear- maybe they weren't making enough noise, or this could have just been a more aggressive bear - the bear proceeded to grab the man by the head. The woman, seeing this play out before her started screaming in terror and shock. The bear dropped the guy and honed in on the woman. He attacked. John, hearing their screams came running...he pulled up his rifle - took aim and the bear charged at him. I was so caught up in Patty's story, can't remember if it was three shots or four - before that bear fell. Patty said when it did, its massive body lay very close to wear John was standing! Patty made that statement and matter of factly added the info that John had fired his last round/bullet! He then in turn, carried each one of those surveyors out to a pt where they could be picked up by helicopter and airlifted to the hospital.

This trek was of some distance and made more difficult by the bush terrain. The ground is hard to traverse, due to frost heaves and vegetation. As John carried the badly injured hikers, he had to tend/apply pressure to their wounds to prevent severe bleeding! Can you imagine the physical and mental
fortitude this task required? I believe they both survived - at least the woman did for sure.

After hearing this story, we looked at John in a whole new way. This unassuming man had the strength/bravery to stand his ground and save his friends/coworkers. In all the time he had been regaling us with stories of the bush and bear encounters he never mentioned his amazing act of courage! He was flown to Washington D.C., where he was cited for his bravery.

(Several yrs after this, when my ex and i were still married, he had the opportunity to go with John on one of his surveying trips. My ex husband had just retired from the Air Force and was waiting to start a new career, John and John, smile - had become great friends and so he was invited to go along that summer. Normally, I would have been extremely worried, but because I knew John was such a fearless and knowledgeable Alaskan - my fears were at a minimum.

Note: Our friend John also held the title of "Best beard in Alaska" awarded at the annual Miners and Trappers Ball! He won so many times they retired the trophy and gave it to him for keeps. see photo

Alaska Vocabulary

Cheechako - anyone who is new to the 49th state

Sourdough - an old timer: anyone who has lived in the a-k a lonnnnnnng time.

Bullchitna - you guessed it: "BS" (Chitna is a town on the Copper River)

Up Ship Creek without a paddle - meaning out of luck, helpless, etc... (Ship Creek is an actual creek in the middle of downtown Anchorage)

Termination Dust - the first snowfall that dusts our mountain peaks. This snowfall signals the end of summer/fall - usually occurs in August (yes, August!)

Outside - lower 48, or just anywhere outside of Ak

Going Outside - leaving ak for any reason

Lower 48 - the 48 continuous states

Bear "Fast Food" - tourist in sleeping bag or tent

Bear "Insurance" - your trusty .44 / other weapon, or the friend you can outrun!

Cache - hiding place or stash...in Alaska it is a small log house built on stilts to prevent wildlife - both human and animal from accessing

Permanent Fund - money we get for living in the Last Frontier (like we need to be paid!)

The "Bush" - no, not those long, unsightly beards! anyplace in Alaska accessible only by plane or boat - ok, ok, pretty much all of Alaska except for Anchorage, grin

Mosquito Dope or Bug Dope - any product used to kill/repell mosquitos which are so big here we consider them the State Bird!

Mukluks or the modern version the "Bunny boot" - mukluks are fur- lined boots that keep your tootsies toasty used by the native population and the bunny boot rubberized to keep those same tootsies warm at -50 plus!

Alpenglow - is an optical phenomonon. When the sun sets, a horizontal red glowing band can sometimes be observed to the east. In mountainous areas, like we have in Alaska, this can be caused by snow, moisture or ice, on the mountain sides which receive the scattered red light from the setting Sun.
When there are no mtns present, the aerosols in the eastern portion of the sky themselves can still be illuminated in the same way by the remaining red scattered light straddling the border of the Earth's own shadow. This back-scattered light produces a red band above the darkness rising in the east. In simpler terms: the sky is a pretty pink color just above the mountain tops!

Ice Fog - Dense fog of suspended ice particles that sparkle in the air on a sunny/partly sunny day.

Moose nuggets - moose droppings: will surprise you because moose scat is not large like in the size of cowpies or horse manure...instead, looks like a pile of walnuts! We sell dried moose dropping to you tourists in the form of earrings, swizzlesticks, necklaces, keychains, etc...proving anyone on a vacation will buy just about anything...

Musher - person who drives sled dog team...yells gee and haw (left and right) and mush, mush -sometimes runs/races in the Iditarod (the Last Great Race)

Ulu - Knife used by native Alaskans (OO-loo) is a versatile cutting tool crafted by the Native Alaskan people thousands of years ago. The knife was used by Eskimo women for skinning and cleaning fish. It has played an important role in the survival of the Arctic people. Blades were originally made of polished slate and given a bone, ivory or wood handle. The handles were often inscribed with distinctive drawings or markings exclusive to the maker of the knife.
Today, we still use the ULU as a cutting tool. We also display ulus as collector items.

Cabin fever - light -deprived Alaskans who don't go out and take advantage of winter activities i.e. drinking, skiing, snowboarding, ice fishing, snowmobiling, may become crazy with the cabin fever

Three Dog Night - so cold that huddling up with two dogs doesn't do the trick

Combat fishing - fishing shoulder to shoulder during height of season with hundreds of tourists, yelling "fish on" - weaving and ducking under other peoples' poles to get fish...usually occurs on the Kenai Peninsula especially near the confluence of the Kenai and Russian Rivers.

Moose Gooser - similar to cattle catcher on the front of a train - see this on the Alaska Railroad

Spenard Divorce - Spenard used to be the seedier part of Anchorage and a divorce there included a lot of hollering, brawling and gun totin

Permafrost - below the surface, ground is frozen for two to five feet. Makes it unbelievably hard to do any kind of burying or road work.

Break-up - see story posted below...

Sun Dog - a large circle seen around the sun on very cold days

Fireweed - see post below, but the weed commonly growing all over ak - especially southcentral, (no! not that weed)!


Ice Worms - minute worms that hang out in glacial ice