Hiking, Shooting, and a Hostile Attack

Although you won’t find a single hiking trail in Bethel, there is no shortage of wide open spaces to explore. Literally hundreds of miles of tundra in every direction. So, this Sunday, we picked a direction and made a hike of it.

From an edge of town, we started out heading 240° southwest. I know this because my former boyscout husband used this as an opportunity to teach me how to use a compass.

Quite handy when there are no landmarks and you can’t see the town once you get 10-15 minutes outside of it.

Over the rolling hills and squishy terrain we walked. With the top layer of permafrost melted for the summer, there was quite a bit of muck boot sinking and puddle wading going on. Oh, and guess what fun surprise comes with stewy marsh conditions??  

Killer mosquitoes! Note to self – never ever ever ever wear black on the tundra again. Ever. Even though we used an entire bottle of bug spray, these mutant Alaskan beasts had no mercy. Whenever the breeze died down for 2 seconds, a swarm of 30+ could be seen around each of our heads. It was nuts. (We later found out that “OFF” is something Bethel mosquitoes laugh at – DEET is where its at).

Hubby's handiwork. Everything from the bug spray streak job to the rigged up men's belt (using our emergency rope) so that I could play cowgirl and wear the gun on my hip (:

About 45 minutes into mosquito country, we found a nice little sandy hill to shoot the guns into.

Popped off a few rounds.

Were easily entertained by our earplugs.    

Took a shameless self-portrait.

And then we were OUT! We hiked back and ended up eating our picnic lunch inside the house. Where we were safe from attack. And no longer outnumbered. And where the tables began to turn….