The flood waters have finally receeded in and around Cantwell the past couple of days since the temps have fallen and precipitation seems to be coming as snow now. They are predicting some fairly cold temps this weekend which should help further draw the waters down.

I went and helped Rick Mcmahan with Denali Fly Fishing Guides retrieve his van out of the flood waters the other day. It is crazy how mother nature can take over and mess with all of us humans. Rick is running a first class operation and he will get everything back up and running for next summer with out any problems. He was a good sport about the flood and posed for a quick photo op for me. The only way it could of got any better is if he would of actually caught a fish on his porch.

Jeni was able to snap a few good photos out the window of the truck the other night and captured the antlers of a nice little bull winkle before he crossed the road in front of us. It is amazing the size of moose in Alaska especially when you get right up close to one. I often compare their size to that of of a large draft horse especially when their antlers get to be over the sixty inch mark.

A quick photo tip for photographing wildlife is to make sure that you are shooting with a relatively fast shutter speed. This prevents the animal from becoming blurry since they rarely hold perfectly still for a photo op. I try and shoot most of my wildlife 1/250 sec or faster. When ever possible shoot from a tripod to prevent further camera movement.

Keep playing in the outdoors and remember your camera!





Justin

Well, it is official Jaydyn said that it was going to snow the other night when we went to bed and sure enough it did! I woke up, looked outside and snow flakes the size of silver dollars were falling from the sky. The first snow of the year is always exciting for those of us that love winter activities and a drag for those of you that do not. I love to snow machine, X-country ski, kick sled with the dogs, and photograph the Aurora so, needless to say I was just as excited as my little girl was to see the frozen water falling from the sky.

I figure this is a good time to give a quick tip to those of you that pack a camera around in the winter. In order for snow to show up white in your photos and not grey you need to over expose your shots 1 to 1 1/2 f-stops. The reason for this simply is that your cameras meter is calibrated to see green grass not white snow. So, when it sees white snow it thinks that the scene is too bright and stops it down 1 to 1 1/2  f-stops. If your new to the camera stuff just try it and see how it works!  If you don't pack a camera around you should start. Shoot lots of photos of family and friends you will be happy that you did.

The other night while Jeni was working on one of her classes I stepped out on to the deck to see another spectacular Alaska sunset. I grabbed the camera and burned off a couple of shots. Thanks for reading my posts I plan on posting a few times a week through the winter posting photo tips, outdoor tips, and things to do in Alaska and Montana in the winter so check back often.

With love from Alaska

Justin




Keep on playing outside!

Grampa Mason

Kinzie

Uncle J

Uncle Dave

Alaska has surely provided some bounty for the Mason's this summer and fall. Earlier this summer my father, brother, nephews, and niece came to experience a bit of Alaska. Alaska is a big state with numerous different types of ecosystems located all over the state so, it is tough to experience them all in one trip. But, the Mason clan tried to fit in as many as possible for sure in a ten day period. We started in Denali National Park seeing the high country and tundra of interior Alaska. Traveled down the Parks Highway experiencing the road system and south central alaska all the way down to the Kenai peninsula. After fishing the Kenai river from the raft and catching lots of reds, we jumped over to Seward and went with Puffin Charters out on the ocean. After watching Grampa turn back numerous halibut we traveled back up the highway and flew out with Willow Air to Lake Creek to chase more fish and experience some Alaska bush flying.

Ryan

Erik

Cantwell Caribou

Pack Mules

After the Mason clan left, it was time to start hitting the Tundra around Cantwell to see if it would give up some of its bounty to me in the way of red meat. Once again, the wilderness did not disappoint and gave up a beautiful caribou for our freezer this winter. The caribou hunt took a little patience and luck to harvest. The first night that I saw him I was with my new hunting partner, Mike Santos, hunting moose and we saw this nice bull up on top of a high ridge. After watching the caribou for the evening and no luck with moose, I decided I would return the next evening to try my luck with the caribou. When I returned the following night with my wife Jeni and little girl Jaydyn, it didn't take me long to find the caribou up on top of the high tundra covered ridge staying away from the stubborn bugs that were still hanging on despite the morning frosts. The walk was a little longer than I thought and with storm clouds looming over head I figured I best take the 3 year old and my lovely wife off the mountain despite getting within 400 yards of the caribou. The next morning, I returned hoping that the caribou would be in the same area. I spotted the caribou in the same area first thing the next morning. Mike and I hiked approx. 1 mile up the hill.  While we were hiking up the ridge line that the caribou was on, he decided to get up out of his bed and started to head down the mountain right to us. He slowly just kept wandering aimlessly around but, generally moving in our direction. After we did a little belly crawling and playing peak-a-boo with the roll of hill, the bull presented a 50 yard broadside shot. The 300 mag barked and found its spot in the lungs of the bull resulting in a quick clean kill.

Hopefully, as this fall presses on, we can top off our freezers with another caribou or a quarter of a moose while sharing the remainder with friends and family. I will keep you all posted and will surely write more about the north country we are so lucky to live in.

With Love from Alaska

 Until next time, hunt on!


Justin