Freez­er Burned is an ongo­ing series for the San Juan Update, writ­ten by Steve Ulvi. Read the pre­vi­ous sto­ry in this series. A Mys­tery Unfolds At Ala­pah Creek the first days of 1984 began with the entire region locked down in extreme cold. The kind of harsh cold you can taste in the air and eas­i­ly  Con­tin­ue Reading

Freez­er Burned is an ongo­ing series for the San Juan Update, writ­ten by Steve Ulvi. Read the pre­vi­ous sto­ry in this series. Kuuk Riv­er Hol­i­days The cel­e­bra­tions dur­ing the short­est days of the year are cher­ished by most high lat­i­tude res­i­dents. Proud rur­al north­ern­ers tend to embrace frosty chal­lenges. Well ahead of the cal­en­dar day that  Con­tin­ue Reading

Freez­er Burned is an ongo­ing series for the San Juan Update, writ­ten by Steve Ulvi. Read the pre­vi­ous sto­ry in this series. The Ala­pah Creek Part­ner­ship Nate Cut­ler felt rein­vig­o­rat­ed after the echo-cham­ber of intro­spec­tion dur­ing so many weeks alone. Sonny’s pos­i­tive nature and easy adap­ta­tion to the chal­lenges of each new day lift­ed his  Con­tin­ue Reading

Freez­er Burned is an ongo­ing series for the San Juan Update, writ­ten by Steve Ulvi. Read the pre­vi­ous sto­ry in this series. Trou­ble at the Ram­parts The full moon loomed high in the sky; the fad­ing cre­pus­cu­lar light of mid-after­noon gave in eas­i­ly to the rush­ing tide of night. The radi­ant moon­glow cre­at­ed spec­tac­u­lar soft  Con­tin­ue Reading

Freez­er Burned is an ongo­ing series for the San Juan Update, writ­ten by Steve Ulvi. Read the pre­vi­ous sto­ry in this series. Death at Cut­off Slough on the Kuuk Riv­er The col­umn of mer­cury in a rusty North­ern Com­mer­cial ther­mome­ter nailed to a porch post was in freefall as the barom­e­ter rose. The occlud­ed front that  Con­tin­ue Reading

Freez­er Burned is an ongo­ing series for the San Juan Update, writ­ten by Steve Ulvi. Read the pre­vi­ous sto­ry in this series. The Hen­der­sen Home­stead Son­ny had been unex­pect­ed­ly ener­gized by meet­ing Natal­ie Hen­der­son on the riv­er. It dawned on him that he could be reju­ve­nat­ed by stay­ing over with this dynam­ic fam­i­ly. Besides, there were  Con­tin­ue Reading

Freez­er Burned is an ongo­ing series for the San Juan Update, writ­ten by Steve Ulvi. Read the pre­vi­ous sto­ry in this series. Sonny’s Jour­ney Unfolds (Authors note: Pre­vi­ous­ly in this novel­la — begin­ning with No Mat­ter What and The Con­fines of Heav­en parts I‑III — young Son­ny Johns rode a sled pulled behind a snow­ma­chine from  Con­tin­ue Reading

Freez­er Burned is an ongo­ing series for the San Juan Update, writ­ten by Steve Ulvi. Read the pre­vi­ous sto­ry in this series. A Yukon Riv­er Mav­er­ick (This sto­ry is cre­ative non-fic­­tion; respect­ful­ly embell­ished where fact and anec­dote blur, an informed yet spec­u­la­tive tale. No one knows just what hap­pened dur­ing the last days and hours  Con­tin­ue Reading

Freez­er Burned is an ongo­ing series for the San Juan Update, writ­ten by Steve Ulvi. Read the pre­vi­ous sto­ry in this series. Déjà vu All Over Again My old friend, Archie Fer­gu­son, last sojourned from his Yukon Riv­er vil­lage a few years back to attend a Sasquatch Dis­cov­ery Camp near Dar­ring­ton, WA. You might remem­ber that  Con­tin­ue Reading

Freez­er Burned is an ongo­ing series for the San Juan Update, writ­ten by Steve Ulvi. Read the pre­vi­ous sto­ry in this series. A Walk­a­bout Begins Son­ny Johns was spent. Leg-weary, ready to call it a day. A damned impor­tant day, the first of many unpre­dictable expe­ri­ences.  A sto­ry as old as human time; an ener­getic  Con­tin­ue Reading

Freez­er Burned is an ongo­ing series on the San Juan Update, writ­ten by Steve Ulvi… (Authors note: this fic­tion­al tale of Alas­ka bush life adven­ture, grief and redemp­tion, cir­ca the 1980s, will be con­tin­ued found­ed upon two pre­vi­ous sto­ries.  See Freez­er Burned: “No Mat­ter What” and “The Con­fines of Heav­en” for char­ac­ter back­ground.) The Con­fines of  Con­tin­ue Reading

The Heart of Dark­ness on the Riv­er “Freez­er-Burned: Tales of Inte­ri­or Alas­ka” is a reg­u­lar col­umn on the San Juan Update writ­ten by Steve Ulvi. Sam­my Jenks gen­tly shut the back­door of his rus­tic home. He turned to pick up a stone then slung it at an alley cat in the garbage can. Strik­ing the ugly cat  Con­tin­ue Reading

The Allure of Gold, Part 2 “Freez­er-Burned: Tales of Inte­ri­or Alas­ka” is a reg­u­lar col­umn on the San Juan Update writ­ten by Steve Ulvi. When Pap­py Scog­gins parked his mod­i­fied school bus at the old boat land­ing in Eagle, Alas­ka he nev­er imag­ined the grous­ing by locals accus­tomed to using that area to load boats, or camp  Con­tin­ue Reading

“Freez­er-Burned: Tales of Inte­ri­or Alas­ka” is a reg­u­lar col­umn on the San Juan Update writ­ten by Steve Ulvi. The Allure of Gold, Part 1 A road-weary group of nine swayed in their bench seats down a nar­row trail, leafy tree branch­es scrap­ing the bulging, tarped roof rack and long rows of dirty win­dows.  The 165-mile Tay­lor High­way  Con­tin­ue Reading

“Freez­er-Burned: Tales of Inte­ri­or Alas­ka” is a reg­u­lar col­umn on the San Juan Update writ­ten by Steve Ulvi. A Mat­ter of Weath­er and Physics   The arrival of spring in the north is a penul­ti­mate plea­sure. For a nature lover, any­way. Like drop­ping a heavy bur­den after a long slog up a moun­tain ridge lead­ing to  Con­tin­ue Reading

“Freez­er-Burned: Tales of Inte­ri­or Alas­ka” is a reg­u­lar col­umn on the San Juan Update writ­ten by Steve Ulvi. The Pit­falls of Fuzzy Think­ing   A decade ago, our fourth sum­mer here, my Alas­ka pal Archie left a phone mes­sage that he would be vis­it­ing in Wash­ing­ton state.  Wait­ing through his prac­ticed, jol­ly jibes about us liv­ing  Con­tin­ue Reading