Last American Frontier

This is the kind of story, which, after you make it out OK, you'd love to have to tell. During, when you're not sure what will happen - not so fun. They're lucky they were still withing cell phone range, because they would have lost it not much further in. This happened down on the Kenai, in an area I've frequented - oh, and if you ever have breakfast at the Sunrise Inn, try the Pig Vomit Omelet - with a name like that, you know it's good!

Two visitors from Ohio interrupted a life-or-death struggle between a moose and a wolf on a Kenai Peninsula trail this week, but it wasn't until after the wolf gave up the struggle and fled that things took a dangerous turn for the men, according to Alaska Wildlife Troopers.

That's when the cow moose charged the men, forcing one up a tree and the other behind a downed tree to avoid the injured animal. There they waited for four hours, the moose holding its ground the entire time, before help arrived and killed the animal, according to troopers.

Events began Thursday afternoon, when 31-year-old Sean Evans of Toronto, Ohio, and his cousin, Josh Clark, 30, of Scio, Ohio, were snowshoeing out to a cabin at Crescent Lake to spend some time snowboarding. The men came around a bend in the trail and were dipping underneath a fallen tree when they saw a spectacle crashing through the brush toward them from a hill about 20 feet away, said Clark, reached by cell phone Friday.

"The wolf had torn off some skin from the moose's neck and was hanging on its neck. The moose was making awful noises. We kind of looked at each other for three seconds and decided to start moving," Clark said. "The moose was trying to get rid of the wolf, and they started coming down the hill really fast at us. And so we split, we got out of the way, and they started fighting right where we had been standing."

The men told troopers they heard other wolves howling in the woods, though they saw only the one.

They dropped their packs and Clark hustled up a nearby birch tree, while Evans got behind the fallen tree, Clark said. The wolf apparently lost its appetite at the sight of the men and ran off. But the moose, which had injuries to its back legs and its neck, wouldn't leave even after they yelled and threw things at it, he said.

Clark said they weren't armed but wished they were.

"Anytime one of us moved, it kind of charged and paused," Clark said. "I was in the tree. I didn't care. So anytime (Evans) would start making noises, I would try to sort of distract it, because I felt pretty safe."

Eventually, they decided the snorting moose wasn't leaving and called for help. Troopers say they got a cell phone call about 3 p.m. Thursday reporting the men were trapped by the moose along Crescent Creek Trail.

The men had rented the cabin at the lake, which is about 7 1/2 miles into the trail, but they were only about two miles in from Quartz Creek Campground near the Sterling Highway when they got pinned, Chugach National Forest spokeswoman Mona Spargo said. Two troopers and a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer put in along Quartz Creek Road, she said.

"They tried to snowmachine in, but it's kind of cruddy right now," Spargo said. "They only made it about a half mile and then post-holed the rest of the way."

When they got on scene along a fairly steep ridge, they saw the moose standing at the base of the tree with Clark in it, said wildlife trooper Kenneth Acton, who was among the officers. The men had been trapped about four hours, and the moose, apparently scared, refused to budge, even after a few warning shots, he said.

"They were totally blocked. The moose isn't going anywhere," Acton said.

"They'd been hiking and snowshoeing in, so they didn't have all of their cold-weather gear on because of perspiration and all that, and now one's been up in the tree for four hours. I mean, he was visibly shaking, I think not only from adrenaline but from the elements as well."

For the men's safety, troopers decided to kill the moose. They shot it with a rifle, cleaned it and took a shoulder and a hindquarter. A charity got the rest Friday, Acton said.

The men were uninjured in the ordeal and, after packing it out of the trail, were able to get back to their vacation.

"We went to the Sunrise Inn and had some beers and some food," Clark said.

[Oh P.S. - when you go in the wilderness here, be armed, or be with someone who is!]

Know what time it is?

Iditarod time! I didn't take too many pics this time (see pics from the last time I went). But it is a fun event, and draws the crowds.

You watch these dogs before the start, as they get started, and when they're on their way, and you just KNOW they love to run. They're leaping in the air and just about jumping out of their harnesses while they wait. There's definitely a wildness in there. I saw an article in which PETA even agreed these dogs love to run. Wow - PETA!

We even let the Canadians compete, despite some lingering hard feelings over the the OT loss in the Gold Medal Olympic Hockey Game.

The biggest story, of course, is the entry this year of the Jamaican Dog Sled Team! People were very welcoming of Newton, the Jamaican musher, who is in the Iditarod for the first time this year - handshakes and autographs abounded.

I don't know about you, but I'm "Rootin' for Newton!"

P.S. Winter is back. The other day we got drifting snow up to a foot - this morning it was 6 on its way to high of 12!