Alaska Man Monday: Good Luck, Bad Luck, and a Dog With a Little of Both

We recently spent some time in Iowa, being Mom/Dad and Grandma/Grandpa, and it was great. Grandchildren are the revenge we get for having been parents, after all, and there’s nothing more grandpa-ish than getting the little ones all stirred up, their heads full of tall tales, right before bedtime.

But boy, howdy, is it ever great to be home again, where the air is clean, the temperature in below 70 (it was in the 90s in Iowa), and it’s quiet.

Speaking of Alaska, we had a few incidents in the last week that warrant some notice. First, up by Hatcher Pass, which isn’t far from here, two hikers got lost in what could have been dangerous conditions. They were found, though. They’re fine.

Early Saturday morning, Alaska State Troopers received a report through the iPhone Emergency Relay Center that two men were lost in the Hatcher Pass area. The report indicated both individuals were experiencing symptoms of hypothermia.
Troopers say the pair were equipped with a tent, sleeping bags, and food, and were sheltering in place while awaiting help.
Alaska State Troopers contacted the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group to conduct a search and rescue operation.
Around 9 a.m., rescuers located the hikers approximately ten miles up the Gold Mint Trail. Crews then escorted them back to the trailhead on foot.
Officials say no significant injuries were reported.

These things, all too often, don’t end well. But this time we got a happy ending.

Alaska Man score: 5 well-chilled moose nuggets.

Now, this next one didn’t end so well.

The body of a Kotzebue hunter who went missing after falling through sea ice during a hunting trip last fall has been found, according to his wife.
Bergman Pete Nelson Sr., 58, was discovered Sunday by a Kotzebue resident — his nephew Vern — after months of search efforts that stretched through winter conditions, according to his wife Charlotte Nelson.
”It’s a relief, a sigh of relief, like we can finally quit wondering where he is,” she said. “We can finally put him to rest.”
Nelson had been missing since Nov. 1, 2025, when Alaska State Troopers said three Kotzebue men riding a snowmachine and two four-wheelers went through the ice near Lockhart Point north of Kotzebue.

Kotzebue is, as we say hereabouts, “up there a ways.” Like many wild and semi-wild places, it can be dangerous; a momentary lapse of attention can be very bad indeed. That seem to be what has happened here, and our condolences go out to the Nelson family.

No score on this one. It wouldn’t be right.

Next, we have a dog who may have been a lot luckier than one might think at first glance.

A bear is the last thing anyone wants to run into in the woods face to face.
Even worse, hearing your dog run into the bear first.
“I just, I don’t wish that upon anybody to hear those, but as soon as I heard the bear, I heard the yip and I heard the bear and I registered what was going on,” said Lori Price, who encountered a bear around Skilak Lake.
Fortunately, Price was carrying bear spray and a Glock 43 9mm pistol.
“I pull my pistol and I shot, boom, down like a sack of potatoes goes the bear,” Price said. “And I was like, okay, good, lights out.”
After that, Price’s other dog, Willis, was unharmed and ran to her side, and she looked to see if Chaos was okay. Despite seeing blood everywhere, he was still moving.
“I’m like, okay, good,” Price said. “My dog’s alive, he came, I could see his head pop out, then all of a sudden there’s like this bloody mess. I was like, ‘but you know what? He’s alive,’ where that’s like a good thing, and then all of a sudden the bear gets up.”
Price’s first shot didn’t kill the bear.
“I shot the bear a second time. Bear goes down,” Price said. “Okay. Bear’s gotta be down. He seems like lights out. We’re - we’re good.”
After calling Chaos to her side, the badly injured dog dragged himself to her side, but they weren’t out of the woods yet.
“All of a sudden, the bear gets up again. And I’m like, ‘oh my God. What?’” Price said. “So, I tried to shoot it a third time.”
The trio didn’t wait around to see if the third shot landed and high-tailed it away as fast as possible. When looking back, Price said she saw the bear lumbering off in the other direction.

Wow. Just… wow. Bears are tough critters. Granted, a 9mm is a bit on the light side for a bear, but then it's better to hit a bear with a 9mm than to blow holes in the air with a .505 Boomenplatzer.

Here’s the thing: Big predators don’t often brook what they might see as competition. They will attack domestic pets, most especially dogs and cats. We have, like many rural communities, problems with people occasionally pulling up in front of a house and dumping an unwanted cat or dog, and here in the Great Land, those sadly abandoned pets all too often end up being killed by a lynx or a wolf.

At least, in this case, Chaos the dog is going to be OK.

Alaska Man score: Five moose nuggets and fond wishes for Chaos the dog’s complete recovery.

And, finally, one of the things I did in Iowa was to go to a range frequented by my son-in-law, where we put some steel on target. Watch:

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