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  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,  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  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  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  Continue Reading

“Freezer-Burned: Tales of Interior Alaska” is a regular column on the San Juan Update written by Steve Ulvi. Mail Will Be Delivered, Part II   On a September day in the 1930s, mail carrier Eddie Hindermann steered his longboat away from Chris “Phonograph” Nelson, who was talking to himself onshore starting into the tall spruce  Continue Reading

“Freezer-Burned: Tales of Interior Alaska” is a regular column on the San Juan Update written by Steve Ulvi. The Confines of Heaven   The Alapah carves sinuous bends in a spacious valley side to side, flowing into the upper Kuuk River, a large tributary of the Yukon River whose milky waters bend west across the  Continue Reading

“Freezer-Burned: Tales of Interior Alaska” is a regular column on the San Juan Update written by Steve Ulvi. Forever More   With the blush of light closing out a long sub-arctic night, among the first daytime creatures to engage in food-seeking are the clans of Common Ravens, who launch impatiently from their heavily branched roosts  Continue Reading

“Freezer Burned: Tales of Interior Alaska” is a regular column on the San Juan Update written by Steve Ulvi. The Consequences of Us and Them The old man emerged slowly from a cocoon of feathered warmth. The radiant heating of the cabin had waned after midnight as the stove fire laid low. In the blackness,  Continue Reading

“Freezer Burned: Tales of Interior Alaska” is a regular column on the San Juan Update written by Steve Ulvi. Cold Weather and Fuzzy Thinking Whenever I look into the rearview mirror of my life gone by in Alaska; feeling nostalgic, needing a laugh and reality check, I call up Archie. But like pickled herring piled  Continue Reading

“Freezer Burned: Tales of Interior Alaska” is a regular column on the San Juan Update written by Steve Ulvi. The Mail Will Be Delivered: Part I On a dazzling autumn day, sometime in the mid-1930s, Eddie Hindermann tipped his hat back pausing in his labors, leaning on a shovel, catching a blow.  He squinted while  Continue Reading

“FREEZER BURNED: Tales of Interior Alaska” is a regular column on the San Juan Update. By Steve Ulvi, San Juan Island Just how much difference can a few bunnies make? Common notions when hearing of the place called Alaska, are a mish-mash of life experiences (or lack thereof), bookish knowledge and an active imagination. That  Continue Reading

“FREEZER BURNED: Tales of Interior Alaska” is a regular column on the San Juan Update. By Steve Ulvi, San Juan Island Ducking through the plank door, coffee thermos dangling in hand, I paused to take in the sky while stretching my sore back and shoulders. Breathing deeply, I was invigorated by the brisk 55 degrees  Continue Reading

“FREEZER BURNED: Tales of Interior Alaska” is a regular column on the San Juan Update written by Steve Ulvi. The aging sow grizzly burned with an incessant urge to gorge on calories as her 10th winter hibernation neared. To provide for herself and both cubs through another denning, required an ongoing smorgasbord of nutrient-rich food  Continue Reading

FREEZER BURNED: Tales of Interior Alaska is a regular column on the San Juan Update written by Steve Ulvi… Arriving in Interior Alaska in 1974, I was 23 years old and had never been in any kind of airplane. (Well alright, full disclosure; as a kid, I was big on those horses and planes that  Continue Reading

FREEZER BURNED: Tales of Interior Alaska is a regular column on the San Juan Update written by Steve Ulvi… (Author’s note: This campfire story is mostly fiction in terms of characters and events. Historic, ecological and political themes will always be sculpted factually. The wonders of the subarctic natural world are as I understand them  Continue Reading

FREEZER BURNED: Tales of Interior Alaska is a regular column on the San Juan Update written by Steve Ulvi…  The plane lifted off the state runway in Eagle on dense morning air on another bluebird July day. The drowsy sprawl of town and sweep of the Yukon River receded under the right wing as we climbed  Continue Reading

Click to enlarge photo. FREEZER BURNED: Tales of Interior Alaska is a regular column on the San Juan Update written by Steve Ulvi… During the summers of the 1970s, a trickle of newcomers of disparate backgrounds, wheeled into the timeworn town of Eagle, Alaska.    Less than twenty years prior, a seasonal road had been blasted  Continue Reading

FREEZER BURNED: Tales of Interior Alaska is a regular column on the San Juan Update written by Steve Ulvi… The days of subarctic summer blend together and can unsettle internal rhythms. This is both a blessing and a curse, in having so many outdoor activities and a greatly expanded opportunity to overdo it. The reality  Continue Reading

FREEZER BURNED: Tales of Interior Alaska is a regular column on the San Juan Update written by Steve Ulvi… In case you have never heard this pithy phrase describing a single woman’s chances of meeting Mr. Normal in Alaska, I did not come up with it. Some form of this lament surely has echoed everywhere  Continue Reading

FREEZER BURNED: Tales of Interior Alaska is a new regular column on the San Juan Update written by Steve Ulvi… Nearly every molecule of water that now covers 70% of our planet was spewed in awesome volcanic eruptions or carried frozen in asteroids or comets that pummeled a lifeless earth for eons.   Any given water  Continue Reading

FREEZER BURNED: Tales of Interior Alaska is a new regular column on the San Juan Update written by Steve Ulvi… After gritting through another sub-arctic winter, there was celebratory pleasure in first plying the roiling, wood-strewn waters of the Yukon River in spring. The boat season followed seven to ten days of heavy running ice.  Continue Reading