Wings and things

What do a loon, mosquitos and a small airplane have in common?

From the book "Wild Critters"
Photo by Tom Walker
Copyright © Tom Walker

Only that items of concern lately seem to be of the flying kind.

First, I heard a loon the other night.  This is not an unusual occurrence in Alaska, but this one was.  I heard it the night before, too, and the morning in between. Somehow that lonesome, plaintive, seeming lunatic wail across a woodland lake sums up all that is good about the solitude of the wilderness.  What made this one so special was that I heard it at the East Pole.  There's a small lake to the west of the cabin, more of a flooded swamp to my mind, though someone who knows says it's long and deep enough to land a Super Cub. If a Super Cub can land there, surely in the almost 30 years I have been going there something as small as a loon should have. I've always wondered why no larger water bird had chosen to nest there, and in particular a loon who would call at dawn and dusk just to let us know he is there.  Well, this year it happened and it made the arduous trip through rutted mud all the more worth it.  As I understand it, they return to the same lake year after year so I may get to hear this one again. Perhaps one day I will wander up there and try to spot him or her or them.  For now that call at morning and night is enough.

From the book "Wild Critters"
Copyright © Tim Jones
and Tom Walker

But not all the things that fly were pleasant.  This year has been a bad one for mosquitos. All over the state people are saying there are more than ever and think perhaps the late disappearance of winter may have been the cause. Not only are there a lot of them, but they seem bigger and they even sound meaner, diving at you like one of those bombers you hear in movies about World War II. There are even shortages of repellents. Around the house and garden I have had to use them every time I go out, something that hasn't happened in the past. After many years, I had found a repellent I liked.  It was the Off brand Deep Woods, not a spray but moistened pads, like wet-wipes. I used those for a couple of years but ran out this year and couldn't find them anywhere.  Off has a new type of pad called Botanical, which is based on natural ingredients from plants, and like so many products made with "natural" ingredients, well, you know the rest.

German Luftwaffe Stuka Ju-87 Junkers dive bomber

That was what I had to take to the East Pole.  Now first of all, I ran into a different kind of mosquito at the cabin.  They were noticeably smaller than the ones in the garden and they made no noise.  And if I stood still for more than a minute they were all over me. The other thing was, like a whole lot of other "natural" products, the damn Botanical Off didn't work, not at all, didn't even slow them down. They couldn't keep up with the four-wheeler when I was running and they didn't seem to bother me when I was cutting firewood. Maybe given they didn't make any noise, they didn't like noise either. But, if I stepped out on the porch to try to get a cellular signal, they were on me within a minute.

So it goes, if it were easy everyone would do it.

Now, the best winged story of all saved for last.

The top two pictures show the damage a bear did to an airplane after a charter pilot and fishermen had left a food cooler and bait aboard, pretty much tore it apart.

But, Alaskans don't give up.  The pilot was able to radio a pilot friend who brought him two new tires and three cases of duct tape, though fliers call it 100-mile-an-hour tape for its ability to adhere even in 100 mph apparent wind.  The results are in the bottom two pictures, the airplane repaired.  Oh, yeah he flew it out of there and all the way home.