A Board of Fisheries update and adventures on a caribou hunt

Before I get into how the caribou hunt went, I want to update you on the latest Board of Fisheries happenings in case you haven’t heard. Here’s some background for this continuing saga.

Gov. Bill Walker appointed Duncan Fields, a commercial fisherman, to replace outgoing board member Al Cain, considered to be a sportsfishing representative, at the end of this current board cycle. Outdoor groups all over Alaska, led by the Kenai River Sportsfishing Association, wrote all the legislators urging them not to confirm Fields because of the imbalance that would be created by adding another commercial fishing guy to the board in place of a sportsfishing guy.

Both Fields and Gov. Walker apparently listened, and Fields withdrew his name and the governor withdrew the nomination. I’m guessing that the governor then asked Cain to continue on the BOF rather than step down as Cain had originally announced. As a result, we are looking at the same two folks being nominated for upcoming open seats who are currently already serving on the BOF. Orville Huntington is the other member whose term was over at the end of this cycle.

It has been rumored that. Fields was thinking of filing for State Rep. Louise Stutes’ legislative seat representing Kodiak prior to his nomination to the BOF. I have also seen where Robert Ruffner, another BOF member, has declared interest in filing for a state legislative seat representing the Kenai/Soldotna area. As we progress further into the election season, we’ll see how all this shakes out.

Okay, now to the caribou hunt I promised to tell you about in last week’s column.

Gnarly Dan arrived at my house early Thursday morning to collect me and my trailer, complete with snowmachine, sled, and gear, to drive up to the Lake Louise area to hunt caribou. I have a covered utility trailer and a large snowmachine. There wasn’t enough room to haul Gnarly’s machine in the trailer, so Gnarly had loaded his machine, sled, and equipment in the bed of his truck and offered to drive. I bought the fuel.

The weather was sunny, and the winds were calm; an absolutely gorgeous early spring day to be out chasing caribou. The drive to Lake Louise went quickly and we arrived about noon, which was fine with me. I figured we could quickly determine if there were caribou in the general area with a few hours of scouting from the snowmachines. We needed to off-load my machine and gear first and then drop the trailer so Gnarly could offload his machine from his pickup truck bed.

We got everything out of the trailer except my machine. When I tried to start it, the engine would turn over but wouldn’t fire. We tried to get it running over the course of about a half-hour, checking to make sure the engine was getting fuel and the spark plugs were firing properly. We had fuel but no spark. We both figured the 27-year-old coil had died. So much for going out on the snowmachines!

Gnarly offered to continue driving to Glennallen and up the Richardson Highway so we could at least do some road hunting. The weather was beautiful, and the drive was pleasant, but we saw no caribou and very little sign during our road-hunting endeavors.

After deciding to call it a day, we headed back toward Palmer, planning to stop in a few places to look for small game along the way. At our first stop, I noticed a flat tire on the rear axle of the trailer. We got that changed using tools I had with the snowmachine and continued toward home.

Gnarly wanted to stop down the road to check the tightness of the lug nuts. I had a thought about the snowmachine as we pulled into a turnout. I had installed a set of gauntlets over the handlebars to help keep my hands warm and the fabric could push the engine kill switch down, killing the spark to the cylinders.

While he was checking lug nut tightness, I went inside the trailer and checked the kill switch. Sure enough, it had been pushed off. I popped the switch up, turned the key, and the engine came to life in the blink of an eye. The machine was fine after all!

Neither of us thought to check that switch. I’m going to install something allowing access to the switch while shielding it from gauntlet pressure. A boneheaded oversight, but now I know!