Alaska grouse ver. 2

[Richard Flanders]

John: no. We drove up the Elliot Hwy that is the base of the Dalton Hwy that goes up to the oilfields at Prudhoe Bay. Livengood is an old mining town that is currently being looked into being developed into a 12million ounce hardrock gold deposit. I worked up there a couple of weeks ago for a week pulling metallurgical samples from stored core.

Here's our hunt from yesterday. We hunted near my house in an area that was logged in the early 70's. The habitat is excellent and holds a lot of birds. This is where we hunted last time Trigg came up. We got onto a lot of birds but having been hunted hard, they were extremely smart and wily. We got a lot of points and a number of flushes but only managed one spruce grouse, which Trigg made a great shot on with his Abercrombie & Fitch 28ga O/U that was made for the vice president of Standard Oil Co and came to him in mint condition, cased in an A&F case and with a vintage A&F ad telling the story of the gun. It is a spectacular little Belgium-made made gun of very high quality. The snow was fresh and made for great tracking. We walked 8.5miles and were pretty bushed at the end and went to our local rec center for a jacuzzi then to the Thai restaurant for some good food.... and beer. I'm getting a break today as Trigg is off doing his lawyer thing on a local case that involves gold miners and which I am assisting him with. Perfect timing; I need the break. Trigg is going to wear me out at this rate. I don't know how he does it at 72; must be all the runs he does on the slalom course behind his new bazillion HP ski boat in the summer. It was an excellent day with nice weather in the high 20's. These old logging roads make for some good access and walking. I'm sure some of these pics look just like some New England trails.