Alaska Man Monday - Firearms Training, Urban Wilderness, and Walking Pharmacies

We’ve had a lovely Great Land weekend! It’s not common to have several clear, sunny days all in a row in late September, but that’s what we’ve been enjoying. Today, the usual clouds and showers have moved back in, but we did have a couple of frosts, which means we can start picking lingonberries and bunchberries. Good times. Watch for some video, likely, on that.

In the meantime: Cops are thin on the ground hereabouts. The only law enforcement we have out here "in the Borough" is the Alaska State Police, and response times can be considerable - so we are expected to be able to look after ourselves. Most folks can and do, but the boroughs can and do help. Our own Matanuska-Susitna Borough has allocated some resources to underwrite firearms training for residents, and it’s been a huge success.

After the Matanuska-Susitna Borough approved a $75,000 grant to provide 300 interested residents with free firearm training, pre-registration hit capacity in just four days, according to the Phalanx Academy’s Director of Training, Joe Kim.
“It was surprising,” Kim said of the response from the community.
The borough awarded Phalanx the bid through a request-for-proposal process, with the training offering stemming from a resolution passed unanimously by the Assembly in January. The resolution encouraged residents “to take advantage of the many resources available for instruction on proper maintenance, carrying, and use of firearms.”
A few months later, the Assembly approved the grant to fund the free training — which totals $250 per person — as part of the borough’s 2025 operating budget.

Firearms training is never a bad thing, even for experienced shooters. And, as should be noted, law enforcement is very thin on the ground in most of Alaska. It’s good that the Mat-Su Borough recognizes this need and has acted to help.

Alaska Man score: 5 moose nuggets. That's my borough!

Next up, it’s amazing how the Alaska wilderness can creep right up on the edges of our settlements – even Anchorage. An Alaska resident, Donna Gail Shaw, has the evidence.

Most days, Donna Gail Shaw puts on her Xtratufs, arms herself with a canister or two of bear spray and a .44 caliber handgun and strides from her home in a Chugach Foothills neighborhood into a backyard wilderness.
For the past eight years or so, the 68-year-old has maintained a hidden network of trail cameras in the northeast corner of Anchorage’s Far North Bicentennial Park that record everyday wildlife dramas that play out at the edge of Alaska’s biggest city.
Last week, one of her trail cameras filmed something straight out of a nature documentary: Five wolves pursuing a moose and its yearling calf at a bend in a branch of Campbell Creek. The wolves worked in concert, separating the calf from its mother as the cow kicked in defense. The drama ended with the wolves killing the calf.
“I think it’s one of the most beautiful aspects of Anchorage to have all this wildlife, right here in the city,” said Shaw, a Texas native who has lived in Alaska for close to 40 years. “I don’t have to go to the backcountry. I don’t have to go very far. I can be in Far North Bicentennial Park and — except for the sounds of cars — feel like I’m in complete wilderness.”

Have a look; if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is surely worth ten thousand words. And it’s a great illustration of the nature of the Great Land – and the nature in the Great Land, which is often found right in the middle of human settlements, amongst us.

Alaska Man score: Another perfect 5 moose nuggets!

And finally, another dumb crook, this one a veritable walking pharmacy.

On 09/19/2024, Seward AST and AWT executed a search warrant on a residence in Seward. The investigation revealed John and Michele were in possession of fentanyl pills, fentanyl powder, heroin, methamphetamine, hydrocodone, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, dronabinol, and suboxone with intent to distribute. Seward AST also discovered packaging materials, digital scales, $1,674 dollars, multiple cell phones, counterfeit money, and ledgers detailing the sales of illegal drugs for over four years.

Holy walking drugstore, Batman! These dumb crooks must have intended to provide an illegal supply not only to Alaska but much of the Yukon and maybe even British Columbia as well. Good job to the Seward AST and AWT for getting these bad guys where they belong – behind bars.

Alaska Man score: No moose nuggets for the informal pharmaceutical salesmen; 5 moose nuggets for the cops that locked 'em up.

And finally: Here are some thoughts on a recent visit to Seattle.