To OC — somewhere in nature, listening for me. Your birthday came in with the wind and left with the rain. Like the drops on the ground, tears fell with the pain. You are missed often, and not just by me. You are dearly missed throughout our community. I hear stories of you often from the people you met. I am thankful for them, because I will never forget. The wild soul you were, the adventures you chased, The kindness you tried to mask behind a bearded face. I’ll never forge

All too often it feels like you are just off on an adventure.. and in some weird way you are. I miss your calls. I miss telling you about the khaos. I even miss arguing with you.

Knowing what is good for you is easy, finding the strength and the courage to do it is the hard part. This is tough.

“Hey Brian, tell my baby girl I’m okay. I’m happy and healthy.”

Your best friend, Trapper Tim, came over to help me access your ashes. I couldn’t bring myself to do it alone.

I hate this.

I miss you most in the mornings, and memories like this are some of the many reasons why mornings will never be the same.

Dear Troll, It has only been 4 months since you left this earth but I feel like I've lived a lifetime without you. Cody found my phone from 2012 and thankfully you left me a ton of voicemails from then too. Many of them, grocery lists or grandeous ideas that popped into your head in the wee hours of the morning. You called me "Princess" a lot in those voicemails. I think I remember giving you shit around that time, saying that you used to call me Princess all of the time but

I miss you every day, Dad. Your sayings, your humor, and the way you loved life. You’ll always be with me, in my heart and memories.

This weekend, we honored my dad, OC, surrounded by love despite the cold. Thank you for sharing your stories and memories of his adventurous

I have been really worried about my dad lately, something in my gut keeps telling me to spend as much time with him as possible. His health is getting worse, but he is not at the end just yet. This should be the standard but let's be honest, we are all living our own lives, busy to say the least, and I know my parents are proud of me for that. I struggle to see my dad in pain, and I often stay strong to keep his spirits up, despite how damaging it is to my heart. I hold in to

Something you might not know about me (because I rarely share this side of me) is that I sometimes process my feelings by singing to myself and making up songs. You know when you find that song that you can just scream to and let your emotions leave with every lyric? Well, sometimes when I can't find the song that will heal that heartache, I make it up. Let's be clear. Sometimes they are goofy, I never sound like Adele, and often I forget the words right after I sing them...

Stars fill the sky, the moon gives some light. Ice crystals floating all around. Snow squeaking under foot. Frost clouds in your face. Your hairs white around your hat. Putting on your gear, your jump back in your truck. Heaters on full blast, you look at each other and laugh. Time to start your ride, it takes 10 tries. Your glad to get stuck, it warms you for a short time. Brrr.... let's try again! You first. Signed, Frigid.

It was around 1984 and my son, PJ, was 2 years old. I decided to go to Lake Louise to fish for burbot and lake trout in an ice house that we were going to drag out onto the ice with our snow machines. We loaded into the truck and drove through the beautiful Matanuska Valley and past the glacier and stopped at Sheep Mountain Lodge for a burger with a view. As we approached Eureka, the temperatures dropped to about 0 degrees but it was still very beautiful like most cold days i

I had a random urgency to call my dad late in the afternoon. Knowing it was long past his 'quitting time' and expecting him to be asleep I gave him a ring. He answered after two rings and although he sounded drowsy he chuckled and said "Weird, I was just thinking about you." I smiled even though he couldn't see me, just because those divine timing moments are always remarkable, even when they are small. He chatted about his day, without taking a breath in between thoughts and

I was working for Moose Horn Lodge located 5 miles south of the Talachulitna along the foothill so Beluga Mountain. We were on 7-Mile lake which was a short hike from the lake to the river. The river flowed with kings, rainbows, and graylings at the time, in great numbers. We would taxi the float plane up the slew and on the left was a small cabin owned by Ketchum Air Service. On the right side, there was a wall tent on a platform made of wood owned by Russ Air Service. I was

Around 1983 the Bureau of Land Management decided to bring some wild mustangs from Arizona to Alaska to give them a home instead of shooting them. My wife and I were in the rodeo circuit at the time. We applied for a mustang and were quickly approved. The day came to pick up our new horse and we went to the ranch of Chuck Edmonds. The horse we were given was pure white, his mane and tail almost touching the ground. His hooves were never trimmed coming straight from the plains